Bulldogs Head To Seattle For Second In-State Series

Feb. 22, 2000

SPOKANE, Wash. -

Gonzaga Bulldogs(3-1)
vs.
Washington Huskies (1-4)

February 25-27 @ Seattle, WA

Series Record: (Washington Leads 53-41)

THE WEEK AHEAD: Gonzaga prepares for its second in-state series of the season as the Bulldogs head to Seattle to play a four-game weekend series against the University of Washington. The Bulldogs come into the series after completing just one game in their weekend series against Saint Mary's College. The double-header scheduled for Sunday against the Gaels was washed out as the Bulldogs were taking infield prior to the first pitch. Washington enters the series on the heels of a 1-4 opening weekend at the Spring Training Invitational in Phoenix, Arizona. The Husky pitching staff surrendered 12 or more runs three times during the five game stint.

                  GONZAGA BULLDOGS                   WASHINGTON HUSKIES 2/25 (6:30 p.m.)  RHP - Steve Bennett (2-0, 2.25)   RHP - Jeff Carlsen (0-0, 6.75)2/26 (12 noon)    LHP - Barry Matthews (1-0. 3.60) RHP - Matt Massingale (0-1, 9.00)2/26 (G2)     LHP - Scott Stencil (0-0, 0.00)   LHP - Mike Bomar (0-1, 18.90)2/27 (1 p.m.)     RHP - David Hixson (0-1, 36.00)    LHP - Matt Gardner (0-1, 4.50)

WASHED AWAY: The Bulldogs weekend series against Saint Mary's College was limited to just one game as Sunday's double-header was rained out. In Saturday's game, Gonzaga picked up a 6-1 victory over the Gaels in a game shortened to seven innings due to darkness. In that victory senior pitcher Steve Bennett collected his second victory of the year after tossing six strong innings and striking out nine Saint Mary's batters. The Bulldogs did all the damage they would need to do with four runs in the top of the fifth inning as the Zags posted their third victory of the season.

VS. THE HUSKIES: The Bulldogs and the Huskies will meet up for the 95th time when they meet in Seattle this weekend. Last season, Washington took two-of-three from the Bulldogs and the Huskies lead the all-time series with Gonzaga, 53-41. This will be the second in-state series for the Bulldogs this season as they continue to battle their old PAC-10 North foes. Ken Knutson enters his ninth season as head coach of the Huskies with a 259-155 record.

       Date   Results   GU R/H/E    UW R/H/E    GU Pitcher     3/5/99    L   4-8   4 / 9 / 0   8 / 9 / 0   Matthews    5/11/99   L   7-8   7 / 10 / 2  8 / 11 / 2  Herbert    5/12/99   W   7-2   7 / 5 / 1   2 / 4 / 0   Siwek

SCOUTING UW: The Huskies enter this series following a tough opening weekend in Phoenix. In their opening weekend, Washington's pitching staff was roughed up in the opening three games giving up 12 or more runs in each of those losses. After settling down the Husky staff allowed only 6 runs in the last two games. Offensively Washington is led by Todd Linden who is hitting .750 for the season with 11 RBI and 3 home runs.

HERTZ STARTS THIRD DECADE: Steve Hertz is in the midst of his third decade of coaching at Gonzaga as he leads the Bulldogs for his 21st season as head coach. An All-Conference pitcher at Gonzaga in the early 1970's, Hertz guided the Bulldogs to an NCAA Regional Final in his first season as head coach in 1978. Following a two-year stint as head coach at UC-Irvine, Hertz returned to his alma mater in 1981 and has guided the Bulldogs through three different conferences. In his 20 years at Gonzaga, Hertz has compiled a 528-525-5 mark while his 22-year career record stands at 587-587-5.

HOME RUN WATCH CONTINUES: Despite posting a 3-1 record to start the 2000 season, Gonzaga continues to wait for its first home run of the year. Last season, Gonzaga smashed a team record 82 home runs as they completed their most successful season in the West Coast Conference.

STRIKE OUT KINGS: Senior pitcher Steve Bennett cracked the Gonzaga career top 10 in strike outs with his nine K performance against Saint Mary's. Bennett passes former All-PAC-10 selection Jerrod Wong on the Zags all-time list as Bennett has pushed his career total to 167 strike outs. For the season Bennett has set down 16 opposing batters as he has posted a 2-0 record for the 2000 season. At his current pace Bennett should finish in the top five for career strike outs passing current Bulldog head coach Steve Hertz and former Major League pitcher Tom Gorman along his way.

Career Strike Outs
1.  Billy Walker     332 (1987-90)2.  Mike Davey   312 (1972-74)3.  Darin Blood  252 (1993-95)4.  Shea Fleck   236 (1990-93)5.  Steve Hertz    226 (1970-72)6.  Tom Gorman   189 (1977-80)7.  Mike Mahoski     183 (1977-80)8.  Skip Raschke     181 (1970-71)9.  Gregg Harris     178 (1983-86)10.   Steve Bennett    167 (1996-pres.)11. Jerrod Wong  165 (1993-96)

HITTING STREAKS CONTINUE: Several Bulldogs have opened the season swinging hot bats and starting mini-hitting streaks. Four players, Eric Rodland, Jason Bay, Barry Matthews and Adam Stokey have each collected at least one hit in each of the Zags first four games. In addition to their current season hitting streaks, both Bay and Stokey carry over hitting streaks from the 1999 season. Bay is currently on a team high eight game hitting streak while Stokey has posted a seven game hitting streak. All four players will once again try to extend their streaks this weekend at the University of Washington.

        Player            Streak     2000 Avg.    Jason Bay   8 games     .467    Adam Stokey   7 games     .267    Eric Rodland 4 games     .385    Barry Matthews 4 games     .353    Jeremy Doane 3 games     .364

SPEED FROM AN UNLIKELY SOURCE: Not normally known as a position of speed, people would be surprised to notice that Gonzaga's team leader in steals for the 2000 season is a catcher. In fact sophomore Brian Munhall is the only Bulldog to have any steals on the season as he has swiped two bases in his only two attempts of the year.

BULLPEN DOMINANCE: Gonzaga's bullpen continues to be a dominating surprise early in the 2000 season. To date Gonzaga's bullpen has tossed 15 total innings, 11 of which the Bulldogs have failed to yield a run. The Bulldogs bullpen has also compiled 18 strike outs to date and four Zags relievers have 0.00 ERA's for the season.

TOP TEN RBI PACE: With his seventh RBI of the season in Gonzaga's 6-1 victory over Saint Mary's, junior Barry Matthews is on a pace to finish in the single season top ten for runs batted in at Gonzaga. To date Matthews has 7 RBI's in 4 games played. At his current pace Matthews should finish with around 60 RBI's for the season which would place him sixth on the Gonzaga single season RBI list. That would also set Matthews up for a run at the Gonzaga career record during his senior season. Currently only junior Adam Stokey is within reach of the career mark as he stands at 11th on the career RBI list with a 107 runs batted in. With two average RBI seasons Stokey could shatter the career mark of 186 set by Jeff Hainline from 1984-1988.

TWO FORMER ZAGS REPORT FOR SPRING TRAINING: Former Zags Mike Redmond and Scott Morgan both were among the many players who reported for Major League Spring Training over the weekend. Redmond is the starting catcher with the Florida Marlins while Morgan is attempting to win a spot in the Cleveland Indians outfield. Several other former Zags are expected to report for Minor League Spring Training next week.

Upcoming Events

Results

Completed Event: Baseball versus 3-Seed San Francisco on May 22, 2026 , Loss , 5, to, 6

Completed Event: Baseball versus 5-seed Saint Mary's on May 21, 2026 , Loss , 4, to, 13

Completed Event: Baseball versus Seattle on May 16, 2026 , Win , 16, to, 13

Completed Event: Baseball versus Seattle on May 15, 2026 , Win , 5, to, 1

Completed Event: Baseball versus Seattle on May 14, 2026 , Win , 12, to, 2

Completed Event: Baseball at San Francisco on May 10, 2026 , Win , 12, to, 5

Completed Event: Baseball at San Francisco on May 9, 2026 , Win , 13, to, 0

Completed Event: Baseball at San Francisco on May 8, 2026 , Win , 7, to, 0

Bulldogs Head To Seattle For Second In-State Series

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