Toreros, Bulldogs knotted
SAN DIEGO – Moments after Saturday’s 13-5 loss to USD tied the West Coast Conference Championship Series at one game apiece, Gonzaga coach Mark Machtolf gathered his players down the right-field line at Cunningham Stadium.
Machtolf’s comments were brief. The main point: Would you rather control your destiny or leave it in the hands of a group of men meeting in a board room in Indianapolis.
Gonzaga can earn its first postseason berth in 26 years with a victory today. Lose and the Bulldogs, considered a bubble team for an at-large berth, must rely on an invitation from the NCAA selection committee.
“Once you get this far, your thoughts are about winning championships,” said Machtolf. “People are speculating (about Gonzaga getting an at-large), but our No. 1 goal is to win a championship.”
The Bulldogs (33-34) will have that opportunity today at 3 p.m. when they take the field against the fifth-ranked Toreros (42-16) for the decisive game in the best-of-3 series.
Gonzaga could have clinched the WCC’s automatic berth with a victory, but watched a one-run game turn into a blowout when USD scored six runs in the seventh inning to make it 11-4.
“Once it gets like that, that’s baseball and you just try to save your bullpen,” said Machtolf. “You want to make sure that you don’t hurt your chances to win tomorrow.”
Gonzaga scored six unanswered runs in Friday’s 6-4 comeback win over USD and the Bulldogs erased a 4-1 deficit with three runs in the fourth inning Saturday. That explains why USD coach Rich Hill was still concerned about a comeback late in the game.
Hill still had the Toreros stealing bases in the eighth and ninth innings with an eight-run lead.
“It’s tooth and nail with them,” said Hill. “It’s such a brawl … It’s college baseball. Aluminum bats. We want to build as big a lead as we can because it can turn around pretty quickly.”
Machtolf said he didn’t feel the Toreros were trying to run up the score.
“At this stage of the game, you take nothing for granted,” he said. “It didn’t surprise me at all. We always say it’s up to us to keep the score down, not them.”
USD pounded Gonzaga starting pitcher Brandon Harmon (6-8) for 15 hits and nine runs, chasing him with one out in the seventh. The Bulldogs’ bullpen did not fare much better, allowing six hits and four runs over the final 2 2/3 innings.
“We just have to put this behind us as fast as we can and focus on tomorrow,” said Gonzaga first baseman Ryan Wiegand, who led the Bulldogs with three hits.
“That’s all we can do right now.”