Bulldogs look to defend WCC title

Every year the Gonzaga baseball team begins West Coast Conference play, it has defense on its mind. But this season, that goes beyond great catches and double plays on the diamond.

The Bulldogs are looking to defend their first WCC title since joining the conference in 1996.

"We have a target on our back from winning last year, so everybody is going to be gunning for us and it's going to be a fun ride," senior infielder Brian Yardley said. "[Head Coach Mark Machtolf] says it's a 21-game pennant race, so we have to be able to play our best each time out and we can't let games slip by us."

Defending the conference crown puts Gonzaga in an unfamiliar situation and gives them the opportunity to make the NCAA Tournament in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1980-81.

Gonzaga began its bid for a repeat title last weekend on the road in San Francisco, finishing the series with a 3-2 win Friday, a 20-9 loss Saturday, and a 2-2 tie late Saturday that was suspended because of darkness on the back end of a double header.

On Friday, junior pitcher Cody Martin struck out six and surrendered just three hits over 7 1/3 innings and in the Saturday nightcap, senior pitcher Liam Baron had a no-hitter through seven innings.

"In the first game I thought we had a great pitching performance," junior outfielder Kyle LaHonta said. "Saturday was just one of those tough games when we lost by a ton of runs, and the conditions weren't great."

Through three WCC games with very different themes, Yardley believes the team needs to focus on little things like bunting well, moving baserunners, and manufacturing runs. These things may make the difference in a conference that had only two teams — Pepperdine and San Diego — reach the NCAA Tournament multiple times in the last decade.

"The third and fourth place teams in this conference aren't going to get an at-large bid unless they pull off a 35-win season, so we are playing basically to get into a regional," LaHonta said. "There's really no tomorrow at the end of the season if you fail to put everything on the line."

The Bulldogs had a record of 12-19-1 entering Wednesday's contest against Washington State and will look to improve upon their record as conference play begins.

"We've either had great pitching and our hitting wasn't there, or our hitting was there and our pitching wasn't that great," Yardley said. "To be successful in conference I believe our pitching and hitting have to come together and be great at the same time."

"Every season has its ups and downs and right now we're just trying to get back on the horse," LaHonta said.

Pepperdine has traditionally dominated the WCC, with San Diego emerging as a power in recent seasons. From 1999-2006, Pepperdine finished with the best conference regular season record for all but one season, and won four WCC championship series titles. San Diego won both the regular season and postseason conference crowns in 2007 and 2008.

"Pepperdine and San Diego are always the powerhouses of the conference; so if you can get by those two teams, you have a good shot at winning the WCC," Yardley said. "But this year the conference is up in the air from looking at the first weekend of play and the preseason."

In 2009, Gonzaga and Loyola Marymount dethroned the usual conference champs by finishing first and second, respectively. The Bulldogs wrapped up the regular season title against the Lions on the strength of a pinch-hit, walk-off double by then-freshman outfielder Chris Sturdivant.

"To have a guy like Chris who was in my situation — in and out with respect to playing time — come up clutch in the right moment is a great memory," Yardley said.

One team looking to take advantage this season is Portland, who has started 20-9 overall (5-1 WCC) with a 12-3 record at home. Sophomore pitcher Kyle Kraus is 6-0, and leads a solid pitching staff that boasts a 3.23 ERA, good for eighth in the nation as of April 11. The Bulldogs and Pilots will not square off until the season's final series, May 28-30 at the Patterson Baseball Complex in Spokane.

Gonzaga will get a taste of top-tier conference action at home this weekend, as they begin a three-game series against Pepperdine on Friday.

"You have to love the grind. Not a lot of people have the opportunity to fight for a title spot in conference and defend a championship from last year," LaHonta said. "The best thing is knowing that right now we're defending a title and nobody has it until the end of the year, so anything can happen."