SPOKANE, Wash. — Gonzaga baseball grabbed a 9-8 win on Sunday afternoon to finish the sweep of Portland at Patterson Baseball Complex and Washington Trust Field.
Gonzaga did just enough offensively and took advantage of 10 hits, seven hit batsmen and two walks to outlast Portland. The Pilots collected 17 hits in the game but stranded 14 runners.
The offense was led by seniors Gunnar Schubert and Nick Brooks, who picked up three hits and two RBI each. Brooks scored three times and hit a solo homer, his first of the year, in the bottom of the eighth, which proved to be the difference.
GU starter Mac Lardner battled through five innings to get the win, giving up 11 hits and six runs (five earned) with two strikeouts and a walk. Taylor Davis entered in the sixth and went 2.2 innings without giving up a run. Calvin LeBrun picked up the save with 1.1 innings of relief, allowing two runs on three hits with three Ks.
Gonzaga answered a first-inning Portland run with a six-run second by taking advantage of UP control problems on the mound. The Zags only had two hits in the inning, an RBI single from Nick Brooks and a two-RBI single from Schubert. GU put three runners on via hit-by pitch, one with a walk and one with an error in the inning, and they scored two runs on wild pitches.
Two two-run home runs by Portland, one each in the third and fourth, closed the score to 6-5 before GU could respond again. The Zags got one on an RBI single from Carson Breshears in the bottom of the fifth.
Portland got one back in the top of the sixth, but the bullpen with Davis and LeBrun kept them off the board in the seventh and eighth.
Nick Brooks then came to the plate in the eighth and hit a towering home run over the left-centerfield wall. GU added one more on a wild pitch to push the lead to 9-6 heading to the ninth.
Gonzaga is back on the road for its next five games, starting with two at Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday in Seattle, Wash. Live scoring and video will be available on the baseball schedule page at GoZags.com.