spt_210424_college-baseball

Gabriel Hughes pitched into the seventh inning before Brody Jessee finished the job for the Bulldogs as Gonzaga got two early runs and held off BYU 2-1 on Friday in West Coast Conference play at Hertz Field.

Hughes (4-3) worked 6⅓ innings, allowing one earned run on six hits and two walks while striking out five.

Jessee entered with two on in the seventh and promptly rung up two swinging strikeouts to end the Cougars’ threat. The freshman from Anchorage, Alaska, pitched 2⅔ hitless innings for his third save of the season.

“Happy to get out of that game with a big win,” Bulldogs coach Mark Machtolf said. “I didn’t think we played very efficiently on offense, but we did enough. Hughes gave us a good start, and can’t say enough about the outing from Jessee in relief. Ready to get back out there tomorrow.”

The Zags jumped out front in the second when a sacrifice fly by Mason Marenco plated Tyler Rando, who doubled to start the inning. They added a second run in the third inning when Ernie Yake scored on a wild pitch.

BYU got the GU lead back to one with a solo home run by Cole Gamble to lead off the fourth inning.

Grayson Sterling went 3 for 3 to lead the Gonzaga offense, which accounted for five hits. Rando’s double was GU’s only extra-base hit.

BYU starter Jack Sterner (0-2) allowed one earned run in four innings.

Gonzaga (25-13, 13-4) goes for the sweep of GYU (12-22, 6-8) at 6 p.m. Saturday.

•Cal rallies past WSU: Darren Baker drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth and California (19-17, 6-7) rallied for a 3-2 win over Washington State (17-15, 5-11) in Pac-12 play in Berkeley, California.

The Golden Bears scored two runs in the eighth off of WSU reliever Michael Newstrom (2-1). Newstrom was charged with only one earned run.

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