Baseball opens its season in Arizona

Gonzaga baseball began the 2010 campaign finishing 2-1 at the Cactus Classic last weekend in Tucson, Ariz. The team won its first two games, 10-6 over Missouri and 9-3 over New Mexico State, before dropping a 10-9 heartbreaker to Washington on Sunday. It was the team's first action since making the NCAA Tournament last year for the first time since 1981.

"We made some mistakes and gave the game away against Washington," Head Coach Mark Machtolf said. "In the other two games we were really solid and I was pleased with the progress thus far."

Against the Huskies, the Bulldogs led 9-4 in the fourth inning, but gave up six runs in the final three frames, including three in the bottom of the ninth.

"Baseball will humble you, and it's funny because we did the same thing to them last year," senior outfielder Mark Castellitto said. "It's never good to lose a game, but early in the season those games can really toughen up a team so that in conference we know how to handle those situations."

One theme over the weekend was big innings, as the Bulldogs scored four or more runs in five of their nine scoring innings.

"Until our pitching gets a little more solidified in the bullpen we're going to be less apt to play for one run because we don't know if one run is going to stand up," Machtolf said.
Part of the reason for the high scoring numbers has been an offensive approach stressing patience. Only eight Bulldog batters struck out over the weekend, including zero strikeouts against Missouri. Conversely, Bulldog pitchers struck out 25 batters in three games.

"One thing that we do more of than most other teams is work on a two-strike approach, not giving in to the pitcher and not wasting any at bats," Castellitto said. "We really showed a lot of power and clutch hitting this weekend."

Sophomore designated hitter Andy Hunter was especially dangerous against Washington, going 3 for 5 with six RBI and a grand slam. Junior third baseman Sean Wilson went 3 for 4 with five RBI against New Mexico State. Wilson and freshman second baseman Clayton Eslick were the only two Bulldogs to record an RBI in each of the three games.

These three entered the season with a combined five games at a position other than pitcher, and all of those belonged to Hunter. Wilson spent last season at the College of San Mateo in San Mateo, Calif., and Eslick spent last season as a senior at Valley Christian High School in Gilroy, Calif.

After losing five major contributors from a year ago to graduation and the MLB draft, Gonzaga will look for younger players to step up this season. That process began over the summer as the new players adjusted to Gonzaga. Machtolf said a key part of the development is when veterans like Castellitto lead by example and are receptive to questions from the young players, which he believes Castellitto is doing very well.

"What we improved on the most was buying into the Gonzaga baseball culture of being good teammates and always competing," Castellitto said. "I think there will continue to be great strides with that as the season goes on."

On the mound, junior Cody Martin had a strong outing against Missouri, allowing three runs in six innings and striking out nine. Martin will move into a starting role this season after spending most of the last two seasons in the bullpen.

"We're going to be pretty good as far as starting pitching goes, but we need to develop some guys that can come in late and close down games because we moved Cody out of that role," Machtolf said.

By season's end, the team hopes to improve in those areas and get back to the NCAA Tournament.

"It's pretty special to be able to go to the postseason like [last year], it makes us more hungry to have success like that this year and future years," Castellitto said.
The journey continues with the College Showdown Baseball Tournament in Peoria, Ariz. The Bulldogs will face Sacramento State and Kansas two times each in a three-day span beginning today.

"Both of them pitch well and they are going to be uniquely challenging," Machtolf said. "At this stage of the game, we're more concerned about what we do and how we go about it rather than having a great game plan."

Gonzaga will play 13 straight on the road before their home opener March 15 against BYU.
"We have enough talent, the most important thing we need is getting experience and acclimating to the rigors of a long year both physically and mentally," Castellitto said.