Fast Break: WCC salutes Machtolf, Fields

Baseball

WCC salutes Machtolf, Fields

West Coast Conference regular-season baseball champion Gonzaga was honored by the conference Wednesday as the Bulldogs’ Mark Machtolf was named coach of the year and Mark Fields was named pitcher of the year.

Machtolf, in his sixth season as the Zags’ head coach, led the team to its third consecutive season of at least 30 wins. This is his first honor as coach of the year.

Fields finished 5-0 in WCC play and 7-1 overall. He has struck out 66 while recording an ERA of 2.85.

Gonzaga’s Anthony Synegal, Tyson Van Winkle and Ryan Wiegand were also selected to the WCC first team. Steven Ames was honorable mention for the Bulldogs.

Gonzaga hosts Loyola Marymount this weekend in the best-of-3 WCC championship series.

Colleges

Big Sky tightens belt

Big Sky Conference men’s and women’s basketball teams will play league games on Fridays and Saturdays next season as members try to trim costs for the 2009-10 school year.

The conference will also not allow air travel for road trips of less than 450 miles and is reducing the Big Sky volleyball and tennis tournaments to four teams instead of six.

Big Sky officials hope the changes save about $415,000 – or $46,000 per school.

The league announced last month that the volleyball schedule would go to Fridays and Saturdays and that additional changes were possible during the Big Sky’s spring meetings this week in Salt Lake City.