SPOKANE, Wash.—Another tough slate of games awaits Gonzaga University’s baseball team in 2015 as the Zags will face five opponents from last season’s NCAA Tournament, as announced by Gonzaga head coach Mark Machtolf. In all, Gonzaga will take on seven squads combined from the PAC 12, Big 10, and SEC and see other competition from the American Athletic, Big West, and the Western Athletic Conferences.
Once again, the Zags will spend the first month of the season in warmer and drier climates, playing their first 17 games outside the Pacific Northwest. They start the season in Northridge, Calif., with Opening Day on Friday, Feb. 13 against Utah Valley. A day later, they face host school CSU Northridge. The Bulldogs will wrap up opening weekend with a split doubleheader on Sunday, Feb. 15, playing Utah Valley in the morning and Cal State Northridge that afternoon.
After a four-game series at UC Davis Feb. 20-22, Gonzaga will head to the desert and participate in the Phoenix Muni Classic from Feb. 26-March 1, joining Bakersfield, Purdue, and host school Arizona State in the tournament’s four-team field. The Sun Devils earned a berth in the NCAA Regionals last season, going 0-2 in the Cal Poly bracket while Bakersfield finished with a 26-33 record in the WAC and Purdue went 13-37 in the Big 10.
Next the Zags will head east for five games in six days. They start with a weekend series at Tulane (March. 6-8), taking on the Green Wave. After their stay in New Orleans, the Zags will then head to SEC territory and Arkansas for a two-game series against the Razorbacks. Arkansas also reached the NCAA Regionals last season, going 2-2 before crashing out of the Charlottesville Regional.
Finally, after the trip to the Southeast, the Zags will get to play at Patterson Baseball Complex and Washington Trust Field. They kick off both the home and WCC campaigns on March 13, welcoming San Francisco to Spokane. The three-day series with USF wraps up, and then BYU comes to town from March 19-21. The Zags wrap up their initial homestand with two games against cross-state rival and NCAA Tournament participant Washington. The series with the Huskies will span March 24-25.
From March 27-29, the Zags will head to Los Angeles for a conference series against LMU, but they return to Spokane for eight more games in eastern Washington. They begin the stretch by hosting Washington State on March 31 and then San Diego April 2-4. The Zags make a return trip to Pullman, Wash., on April 7, and will close the busy two weeks with a conference series against Saint Mary’s April 10-12.
Gonzaga will hit the road for the next three weeks, making conference stops in Portland, Ore. (April 17-19), and Santa Clara, Calif. (April 24-26). They wrap up the road trip in Los Angeles again, but this time for a non-conference series against UCLA at Jackie Robinson Stadium (May 1-3).
After facing the Bruins, the Zags will close out their home slate with three games against Pacific May 8-10.
The Bulldogs will end the 2015 regular season with road series against two NCAA tournament participants. They’ll head to Eugene, Ore., for a two-game stretch against the Ducks, and they’ll wrap up the regular season in Malibu, Calif., to play three against reigning conference champion Pepperdine. Oregon was eliminated by eventual College World Series winner Vanderbilt in the Nashville Regional last season while Pepperdine reached the Super Regionals.
If they’re one of the top four teams in the WCC standings after the Pepperdine series, the Zags will take part in the WCC Tournament for the third year in a row. The tournament will run May 21-23 at Banner Island Ballpark in Stockton, Calif. Gonzaga is the only squad to make the previous two iterations of the tournament.
2015 Gonzaga Baseball Schedule
