San Diego recovers from losing Game 1 of the series to Gonzaga, winning yesterday and then pounded the Bulldogs 13-1 today, to win the West Coast Conference championship.
The players are jumping on eachother in what might be the start of very memorable month for the Toreros.
WCC: How lazy is the tournament selection committee?
With Gonzaga down 12-1 right now in the sixth inning, it doesn't look like the Zags are going to get the automatic bid handed to the West Coast Conference champion.
Which raises the question: Do they get an at-large bid?
A Sean Nicol double, a Mike Metzger single and a Justin Snyder ground ball equaled another run for the Toreros. It's now 4-1 San Diego.
Gonzaga head coach Mark Machtolf has been reluctant to go to the bullpen in this series, but if Justin Monroe continues to struggle it's hard to imagine he will be in there much longer.
The Toreros might be best known throughout the country because of their pitching, espcially Brain Matusz.
But it has been the San Diego hitting that has impressed this weekend. Yesterday, San Diego scored 13 runs on 21 hits and today they started right where they left off.
Gonzaga lead was short-lived as the Toreros scored three runs in the bottom of the first to take a 3-1 lead.
If Gonzaga wants to win this game, they will probably have score seven or eight runs.
Gonzaga got aff to a good start in a game they have to have.
Evan Wells led off the game with a single, then Torero starter Matt Coauch was calledfor a balk, which San Diego head coach Rich Hill argued to the umpire about (something Hill seems to do a lot ) and then Bryan Winston hit a single to put Gonzaga up 1-0.
Couch recovered, getting out of the inning with no further damage. No we'll see how Gonzaga's starter, Josh Monroe, does against the Toreros explosive offense.
For the first time in their history, San Diego will host an NCAA Regionals next weekend. The team was told in the locker rooms before the game, so they should be pretty fired up for the final game in this series.
Looks like I'm going to have another night in San Diego.
The Toreros put up a six spot in the seventh, and are now leading 11-4.
Gonzaga starter Brandon Harmon got pulled after giving up two runs in the inning, and his replacement, Jeremey Stumetz, didn't do much better giving up another two.
Just by looking at the stat sheet, one of Gonzaga's weaknesses is the bullpen. For one, it's not even used very often, and only one pitcher has an ERA under four.
USD catcher Jordan Abruzzo is having a very nice game, going 3-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored.
Gonzaga head coach Mark Machtolf doesn't like going to the bullpen but he might be forced to very soon.
San Diego scored a run in the top of the fifth to take a 5-4 lead.Torero lead off hitter Justin Snyder hit a single to left field to drive in Sean Nicol.
Gonzaga starter Brandon Harmon has now given up five earned runs on 11 hits, three walks and two strikeouts.
No thanks to the crowd (which is acting like they are watching a movie), the Toreros got a baseloaded double in the top of the third from Logan Gelbrich to take a 2-1 lead.
Josh Romanski tried to score from first on the play, but was thrown out at the plate. Although, USD head coach Rich Hill argued for about 10 minutes that Romanski should have scored becuase the catcher was blocking the plate (he had a good arguement), but the call was not overtunred.
It was three up and three down fro Gonzaga in the bottom of the third, so the Toreros will now bat in the fourth.
San Diego got two singles and runners on first and third with two outs, but Gonzaga's Brandon Hanson got out of the top of the first striking out USD's starting pitcher Josh Romanski.
Romanski looked at three strikes which looked to be four or five inches off the plate. If he gets that same pitch against the Zags, the United States national team player should have a good day.
Romanski looked sharpe in the bottom of the first, sending the Zags down in order.
San Diego will play its first elimination game of the year,when they go up against a confident Gonzaga team here at Cunningham Stadium on the USD campus.
The Zags Calyton Mortensen threw 134 pitches in his complete game victory over USD, shutting out the Toreros in the final seven innings.
The 6-4 win puts Gonzaga one win away from a conference championship and an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
Probably the difference in the game was the poor pitching by San Deigo's ace, Brian Matusz. Matusz pitched 4 1/3 innings, giving up seven hits, four walks and four earned runs.
When I wrote my not so good preview for this series yesterday, I wrote that the only way Gonzaga can get into the NCAA Tournamnet is if they win the WCC conference championship.
Well, "the experts" seem to disagree, with both CSTV and Rivals.com having the Zags in the tournament in their latest projections.
For the second time in the three innings, a USD outfielder attempted to make a diving catch, but instead had the ball go by him, which allowed a run to score.
This time it was Logan Glebrich that tried to end the seventh inning with an amazing catch, but he missed the ball allowing Mike Terry to score from second.
It looked like it was going to be Gonzaga's Clayton Mortensen who going to get pulled early (not Brian Matsuz), but after giving up four runs in the first two innings, the WCC Pitcher of the Year has now settled down, pitching four scoreless innings.
Gonzaga head coach Mark Machtolf doesn't use his bullpen much, so Mortensen will probably go deep into this one.
Gonzaga is still up in the top of the seventh, 5-4.
Right fielder Steve Buschini tried to make an amazing diving catch to save a run, but he missed it, which allowed Gonzaga's Mike Terry to score from second.
The Zags have now scored five unanswered runs, to take a 5-4 lead going into the bottom of the fifth.
Somewhat interestingly, the crown here is pretty even between USD and Gonzaga fans, with neither of them being very vocal.
Gonzaga tied the game on a double steal, when USD's cather Jordan Abruzzo threw a wild throw to second which allowed Shawn Wayt to score from third and tie the game.
That was it for Matsuz, as reliever Anthony Slama (3.11 ERA) takes over.
Unlike many of the conferences, which include more teams than it excludes in its conference tournaments, there will be only two teams that will compete for West Coast Conference championship this weekend. Regular-season champion San Diego (ranked No. 9 in the latest USA Today/ESPN Top 25) will try to lock up a top-seed for next week's NCAA Tournament, when it meets second-place Gonzaga at Cunningham Stadium in San Diego.
