Saint Mary's ends Zags' season

STOCKTON, Calif. — Gonzaga’s season came to an end Friday night with its second loss in two nights to Saint Mary’s, this time 4-3 in a loser-out game of the West Coast Conference baseball tournament.

The second-seeded Zags, who eliminated top-seeded BYU earlier in the day, finished 31-24.

Third-seeded Saint Mary’s (35-21) plays fourth-seeded Loyola Marymount (31-23) in the championship today, needing to beat the Lions twice to win the title.

After earning the save with a clean ninth in the Zags’ early game, Alex Jacob made the start and went 4.0 innings, allowing just one run on three hits with seven strikeouts.

Joe Vranesh of Saint Mary’s hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning to snap a 1-all tie.

Daniel Frederickson hit an RBI double in the eighth and scored on a throwing error on a grounder hit by Nick Nyquist (Coeur d’Alene High) to pull the Zags within 4-3.

Troy Johnson hit a solo homer in the top of the first for GU.

Gonzaga 3, BYU 1: Mac Lardner pitched 8 innings of one-run ball in an elimination game victory over the 24th-ranked Cougars (36-17).

Lardner allowed one run on three hits with seven strikeouts and one walk for his sixth win of the season.

Nyquist doubled to lead off the fifth inning, and scored on a two-out single by Isaac Barrera to put Gonzaga ahead 2-1.

Ernie Yake’s homer in the bottom of the first tied it at 1.

GU added another run in sixth when Fredrickson laid down a safety squeeze bunt and Troy Johnston slid around the tag to score and make it 3-1 Zags.