Tragedy Overshadows Wcc Opener

Gonzaga baseball preview

It was just two days prior to Gonzaga’s West Coast Conference baseball opener at Loyola Marymount, but Bulldogs coach Steve Hertz admitted that he was having more trouble keeping this year’s WCC title race in perspective than he ever has had trying to analyzing it.

Hertz, in his 20th season as GU’s coach, had returned earlier Wednesday from Jerome, Idaho, where he had attended memorial services for the parents and sister of one of his players.

Redshirt freshman Brian Neace lost his mother, Judy; father, Ken; and 14-year-old sister, Brandy, on March 7 when their private plane crashed near Lowman, Idaho. They were en route to Pullman, where they were planning to meet Brian and his brother Blake, who attends Washington State.

After attending the memorial services, Hertz flew back to Spokane, put his team through a soggy late afternoon practice at Pecarovich Field and started packing for this weekend’s trip to Los Angeles, where the Bulldogs (6-8-1) will open their second season in the WCC with a 2 p.m. matchup against Loyola Marymount (9-17) on Friday.

The teams meet again Saturday in a noon doubleheader before closing the four-game series with a single game Sunday at 1 p.m.

Hertz will be lucky to make the flight to L.A., considering he plans to attend the funeral services and burials of Neace’s parents and sister this afternoon in Washtucna, where Neace’s grandparents live.

“In 23 years of coaching, I’ve seen some tragedies,” Hertz said. “But this one is almost too much. The kid (Neace) is 19 years old and his sister, mom and dad are gone. My heart is just broken right now - but I think it’s important we get Brian back with us as soon as possible.

“This team is very important to him right now.”

Neace, a 6-foot-1, 190-pound right-handed pitcher, has been battling mononucleosis and has not played this spring.

Meanwhile, the Bulldogs are trying to focus on improving on last year’s 24-25 record that included a 12-15 mark and fifth-place finish in the WCC.

Hertz likes his team’s early season record - considering all 15 games have been played on the road. GU has a league-high 21 letterwinners returning, including senior outfielder Brendan Hare, who was a second-team all-WCC selection after hitting .296 last spring.

“We’ve really played well most of the time so far this year,” he said, “but what we’ve got to do is find a way to hold on to that effort and intensity that we’ve had in some of our quality wins.”

Along with Hare, the Bulldogs have some big offensive guns in junior outfielder Donnie Murrell, who is hitting a team-high .406 with five home runs, and senior third baseman Jason Uberuaga, who went 9 for 22 and drove in 13 runs in last weekend’s Pepsi/Johnny Quik Classic at Fresno State.

Two other regulars, junior shortstop Kevin Workman (.359) and senior outfielder Rob Pearsall (.333) are hitting over .300, and Hertz seems to have developed enough pitching to offset the loss of junior right-hander Steve Bennett, who will sit out the year after off-season elbow surgery.

Senior right-hander Brian Alexander (0-1) currently leads the Bulldog staff with an earned-run average of 3.98. Senior Charlie Zimmerman and freshman Troy Stoppa each have two wins.

Hertz said he expects pitchingrich Pepperdine to challenge defending champion Santa Clara and San Francisco for this year’s regular-season WCC title.

Short hops

Gonzaga will play its first 25 games on the road before opening its home schedule against Washington State on April 2… . After hitting only 19 home runs in 62 games last season, Santa Clara (13-12 overall, 2-2 in the WCC) has already pounded out a league-high 26 in its first 25 games… . The Broncos’ Mike Frank not only leads the WCC in hitting with a .431 average, but has also posted a leagueleading five wins as a pitcher this year… . In back-to-back games against Kansas State (a 1-0) and Oral Roberts ( a 3-0 win) last week, Pepperdine starters Randy Wolf and Andy Shibilo both pitched complete games and combined for 17 strikeouts, while allowing only three hits, one earned run and no walks. , DataTimes