Gonzaga warms up in conference baseball play

A dismal start to the season nearly doomed the Gonzaga baseball team. But the young Bulldogs have gathered themselves just in time for the start of conference play and appear poised to compete for a West Coast Conference title.

“That’s always our first goal,” coach Mark Machtolf said. “You always have a number of goals, but our first goal is to win our conference and so we do everything we can to prepare for that, and we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us but a pretty good start on the road.”

Gonzaga began the year 3-11 with the young pitching staff unable to hold down clubs such as No. 2 Oregon State, Arizona State and even Incarnate Word, who avenged a 6-1 loss to the Bulldogs in GU’s Irish Baseball Classic opener with an 11-8 victory in its finale.

But following a sweep by UC Riverside, the Bulldogs have turned their season around, improving their overall record to 9-14 and more importantly, in the eyes of their coach, racing out to a 5-1 record in the WCC.

“I don’t think this team ever got discouraged,” Machtolf said. “I know our record was awful and there were some rough patches but that’s one of the things about this team is it sticks together and knows it can be a good team down the stretch.”

The pitching remains a work in progress and has given up 24 runs over the past four games. But GU went 2-2 in those outings thanks to some timely hitting. The Bulldogs bats have come around, averaging five runs per game in the team’s sweep of San Francisco and driving in 15 runs in the team’s two wins over Pacific.

Jones’ bat livening up

P.J. Jones looked much more comfortable crouched behind the plate than standing in the batter’s box early the season. But the catcher’s bat has come around and with it so has the Washington State baseball team.

The Cougars began the season 2-7 while Jones toiled without a hit in his first 32 at-bats. But against Arizona on March 15 he broke out of his slump with three hits to drive in three runs in WSU’s 6-5 win over the 2012 College World Series champion.

The next day he added two more as the Cougars won the series against the Wildcats in Tucson.

“We kept hitting him in the 5-hole because we think P.J.’s a stud,” coach Donnie Marbut said. “I’m so glad he’s in our program, I’m so glad he’s our catcher. He’s swinging the bat and you just knew he would. … Look at his numbers in Pac-12 play when we’re playing the best teams in the country and he’ll put up good numbers, he’s that type of player.”

Gonzaga back home

The GU baseball team has played 23 games so far this season and on Friday it will finally play its first game in Spokane. A combination of national tournaments and concerns about the weather has kept the Bulldogs on the road through the first month and a half of the season.

Gonzaga played its first game in the state of Washington on Tuesday, falling at UW 7-1.

“I think that’s huge for us. When you play the first (23) games on the road you get a little weary and obviously academics can take a lot of time, too,” Machtolf said. “So, to get home and start playing in that routine makes a big difference for us.”