MORAGA, Calif. — No. 12 Gonzaga got the job done in the way it's become known for this season in its West Coast Conference series opener with Saint Mary's at Guisto Field on Friday afternoon, building on a shutdown pitching performance with a scrappy offensive showing for a 4-0 shutout win.
Starting RHP Gabriel Hughes was sensational en route to his xxth win, matching a career-high of 13 strikeouts while holding the Gaels lineup scoreless over seven frames of work. In that span, he was tagged for only four hits and two walks. Closing out the final two frames, RHP Michael Spellacy struck out four more while keeping the Gaels scoreless on one hit with no walks.
With their fourth shutout of the season, the Bulldogs (25-10, 12-4 WCC) moved into the top 15 in the nation in that category, tied for 14th overall.
Enzo Apodaca (1 run, 1 RBI) led a 11-hit performance for the Bulldogs with a 3-for-5 outing, with Savier Pinales (1 RBI) and Cade McGee (1 run, 1 RBI) generating a pair of knocks each.
"Good start to the weekend," said GU Head Coach Mark Machtolf. "Hughes was electric and gave us a premium Friday night start, and we did enough offensively with some timely hits."
The Action
Hughes went to work early, striking out four of the first six batters he faced before blanking the Gaels through all seven of his innings on the mound — three of which were hitless.
After going hitless for the first two frames, GU put up two runs to open the scoring in the bottom of the third. Ezra Samperi led off with a wall-grazing triple — his second in the last three games — that Apodaca quickly followed up with an RBI single to get him across with plenty of time to spare. Apodaca stole second in the next at-bat before Tyler Rando connected on another RBI knock to add another run to the lead, but a strikeout and flyout in the next two AB's kept GU from capitalizing further.
McGee tacked another run onto the lead with his sixth homer of the season in the top of the sixth. Sterling and Pinales both singled and stole bases in succession to move to second and third with one out on the board after a K from Shea Kramer, but a popup from Machtolf and a grounder from Samperi in succession stranded them both.
SMC's Coleman Schmidt hit a triple for the Gaels' first extra base hit of the day in the bottom of the seventh, but Hughes struck out Blake Mann swinging for his 13th K of the day to tie his career high and induced a fielder's choice knock that ended the frame with Saint Mary's still scoreless.
Sterling reached scoring position after getting to first on a fielder's choice and advancing on a groundout in the top of the eighth, and Pinales came through with a two-out RBI single to center field that extended the lead to four.
Spellacy took the mound in the ensuing frame, getting a pair of K's for his first two outs before a single from Javy Espinoza pushed Gavin Napier to third and threatened to undo the active shutout. But the senior righthander induced yet another inning-ending fielder's choice play to get out of the jam unscathed and kept rolling in a game-sealing ninth, generating a popup and striking out two more to end the game.
Series at a Glance
With the win, the Zags are 36-29 against the Gaels since 2003 and are winners of three straight after their home series victory against SMC in 2021, breaking a stalemate on the road to take a 15-14 lead in games played in Moraga.
Up Next / Follow the Game
The Zags can secure their sixth-straight WCC series win with a victory in Saturday's game two, set for a 1 p.m. first pitch. RHP Trystan Vrieling (4-1, 57 IP, 79 K, 3.16 ERA) is GU's probable starter on the mound, set to square off with Gaels RHP Conner Roberts (3-1, 42.1 IP, 43 K, 4.04 ERA).
