Apr. 16 -- MOSES LAKE -- With the college baseball season halfway through, several teams across Washington are in the thick of highly competitive league matchups, pushing for higher positioning in their conferences and the postseason. See how your favorite programs have fared recently.
Gonzaga (20-14)
The Zags are currently on a seven-game win streak, their most recent coming from a three-game series sweep against Portland. While the first two games saw the Bulldogs show how dominant they can be, winning 12-6 and 11-3, game three proved to be a tougher challenge.
Gonzaga started strong by taking an 8-1 lead through the bottom of the fourth inning. That inning seemed to foreshadow another go of the last two games, with three Zags hitting home runs to increase their lead. However, Portland erupted for eight runs in the top of the seventh inning to take a 10-9 lead over Gonzaga. Rising to the occasion in the bottom of the seventh were the Zags with three runs to retake the lead.
From there, Portland only managed to get home once more before the Bulldogs defense solidified the win in the top of the ninth inning.
They look to extend their win streak with a three-game road series against Saint Mary's, starting Friday at 3 p.m.
University of Washington (16-20)
The Huskies hit a rough patch recently, winning one out of their last six games. Most recently, they went 1-2 in a weekend series at the Minnesota Gophers. The first two came Friday, April 10, in a doubleheader; the Huskies won first 11-7 while the Gophers rebounded in game two with a 12-6 win.
According to UW Athletics, the Huskies belted four home runs on their way to a series-opening victory 11-7. In that game, Jackson Hotchkiss got the scoring started immediately, drilling a leadoff home run to put the Huskies in front immediately.
The Huskies scored five in the fourth inning before adding three more in the fifth. Hotchkiss blasted his second home run of the game in the fourth, his second of three hits in game one.
The sophomore right fielder finished his game going 3-4 with five RBIs, two walks, and two home runs. He now has 11 homers this season. Sam DeCarlo ripped his fourth home run of the game in the fourth inning.
Noah Kenney earned his fourth win of the year, throwing 6 innings while allowing three hits, four runs, three walks, and five strikeouts.
In game two, Bower again had the hot hand offensively. The Husky catcher tagged his second home run of the day—a solo shot in the third inning—to bring his season total up to 10. Blake Wilson went 3-4 from the plate to lead Washington in hits. The junior added a double and a stolen base in the contest.
Game three was more competitive, as the Huskies fell 4-5. Defense controlled this game as Minnesota led 1-0 through the fourth when the UW scored three to take the lead. After some back and forth, the Gophers pulled ahead in the bottom of the seventh with three runs to reclaim the lead 5-4.
The Huskies return home Friday to host the Michigan State Spartans for a weekend series. Game one is slated to start at 7 p.m.
Washington State (19-18)
After stringing together five consecutive wins, the Cougars suffered an 8-18 loss on the road against Utah Tech.
According to WSU Athletics, Utah Tech built an early lead with four walks and a double in the opening frame and added another run in the second. Washington State's Gavin Roy launched a two-out two-run shot to left centerfield in the third inning but UTU came back with a pair of runs in their half of the third for a 7-2 advantage.
The Cougars scored twice more in the fourth on Northrop's two-run double down the left field line to make it a three-run game. Utah Tech answered an inning later with a five-run fifth for a 12-4 lead.
WSU scored four runs in the seventh inning after Alexandre Giguere's two-run single back up the middle and Cam Macleod just missed a homer and tripled off the right field wall to score two runs.
The Cougars return to the road this weekend for a weekend series at UNLV, starting at 6:05 p.m. Friday. Games two and three will be played Saturday at 6:05 p.m. and Sunday at 12:05 p.m.
Central Washington (16-20)
The Wildcats are coming off a weekend series against Western Oregon that saw them go 1-2. They dropped the first two 3-6 and 3-13. However, game three was different, as they put together an 8-5 win to close out the weekend, according to CWU Athletics.
Western Oregon broke through in the fourth when Chris Arce and Robby Shepherd singled ahead of Tyler Mohler, who drilled a three‑run homer to right to give the Wolves a 3-0 lead.
Central answered in the fifth as Kaiden Hernandez walked and moved to third on a Logan Blank single before Andre Garza lifted a sacrifice fly to center, trimming the deficit to 3-1.
The Wolves stretched the margin to 5-1 in the sixth, using an RBI groundout from Shepherd and a pair of CWU errors that allowed Arce to come home and extend the lead to four.
The Wildcats then flipped the game in the bottom half, erupting for seven runs. After Kellen Berg was hit by a pitch and Conrad Henkel doubled, Jake Lockwood lined a two‑run single to cut it to 5-3.
Blank later tied it with a two‑run single; Hernandez scored on a wild pitch for a 6-5 lead; and Ethan Swenson capped the surge with a two‑run double to make it 8-5, as CWU retired the Wolves in the top of the seventh to take the victory and split the series at 2-2.
After a short break, the Wildcats return home April 24 to kick off a weekend series against Saint Martin's, starting at noon.