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Carlson Lifts GU to Series Win
April 24, 2005
SPOKANE, Wash. - Junior first baseman Bobby Carlson's walk-off single in the ninth inning lifted the Gonzaga University baseball team to a 6-5 West Coast Conference win over visiting Pepperdine University Sunday afternoon at Avista Stadium. With the win the Bulldogs clinch the three-game WCC series, move to three games ahead of the University of San Diego for first place in the WCC Coast Division and improve to 25-15 overall and 12-5 in the WCC. Pepperdine falls to 26-14 overall and 12-5 in the WCC with the loss. With the score knotted at five runs apiece, the Zags once again put on their rally caps and were able to pull off the win. Freshman third baseman Darin Holcomb led off the inning with a stand-up double to right field. The Waves then intentionally walked Jeff Culpepper, and right fielder Jackson Brennan then moved Culpepper and Holcomb one base on his sacrifice bunt. Pepperdine intentionally walked Kiel Thibault to load the bases for Carlson with only one out. Carlson delivered the Zags with the win as he hit a walk-off single to right field scoring Holcomb from third. The Waves gave the Zags a bit of a scare in the ninth inning. With the score tied, David Uribes led off with a single and moved to third on a throwing error by the Gonzaga pitcher as Adrian Ortiz reached first on the same error. The Zags then intentionally walked Chad Tracy to load the bases with no outs. Steve Kleen then hit a hopper to Aaron McGuinness who fielded the ball cleanly and made the force out at the plate. Luke Salas then popped out to McGuinness for the second out of the inning. Danny Worth then hit a hard shot down the left side but Holcomb made an outstanding grab to stop the ball from going into the outfield and then laid his body out to make the tag at third retiring the side for GU.
Gonzaga scored one run in the second, fourth and eighth innings and two runs in the fifth inning to round out their six runs on the day. Every Gonzaga batter then went to the plate recorded a hit with Culpepper, Thibault, and Carlson all going 2-for-4 on the day to lead the offense for the Bulldogs. Relief pitcher Nate Williams (3-0) picked up his third win of the season allowing one run on three hits in 3.1 inning of work. Jason Dominguez (1-3) was saddled with the loss for the Waves allowing two runs on four hits in two innings of work. The Bulldogs will be back in action on Friday as they play the first of a three-game WCC series at Santa Clara University in a 6 p.m. game. |
