SPOKANE -- Gonzaga University earned a three-game sweep of Loyola Marymount University as Jeremy Stumetz fired a complete-game on the mound in the Zags 6-1 win in the series finale at the Patterson Baseball Complex and Washington Trust Field Sunday afternoon. Stumetz allowed just one unearned run and scattered eight hits to clinch the Bulldogs (20-32, 8-10 WCC) first series sweep of the season and give head coach Mark Machtolf his 200th career victory. Five Zags recorded multi-hit games as Billy Moon drove in three runs and Ernesto Ortiz hit his third home run of the season. LMU dropped to 22-29 overall and 4-14 in WCC play. Gonzaga gave Stumetz some early breathing room, scoring a pair of runs in the first and adding another in the second. Steven Halcomb got things going with a one-out single to right center in the first inning and Mark Castellitto followed with an opposite field double down the right field line to put runners on second and third. Moon picked up his first RBI of the day with an infield single that bounded high over the mound and could not be corralled by a charging LMU second baseman, allowing Halcomb to come across for the game’s first run. One batter later Chris Sturdivant lined a two-out RBI double into the right field corner to score Castellitto and give Gonzaga a 2-0 advantage. Ortiz pushed the Zags lead to 3-0 with his one-out solo shot over the left field fence in the second inning. The three-run cushion was more than enough for Stumetz who attacked the strike zone and worked ahead of the LMU hitters throughout the afternoon, recording first pitch strikes to 29 of the 37 hitters he faced. LMU cut the GU lead to 3-1 in the fifth, using a Bulldog error to bring a run across but the Stumetz again worked out of the jam before the Zags eventually put the game out of reach with a three-run seventh. Ortiz opened the frame by taking a 3-2 pitch the other way for a line-drive single to right and Drew Heid followed with a perfectly placed drag bunt to second base for a base hit to move Ortiz up to second. Halcomb then earned a walk to load the bases for Castellitto who drove in a run with a RBI ground out to second. Moon followed by driving pitch over the leftfielder’s head that short-hopped the wall for double that drove in two more runs and pushed the lead to 6-1. That was more than enough for Stumetz who retired the Lions in order in three of the final four innings to preserve the 6-1 win. The senior right hander finished with one strikeout and just one walk to register his first complete-game victory since he fired a four-hit complete-game shutout against the University of Washington as a freshman Mar. 21, 2007. Heid finished with two hits, extending his hitting streak to nine games while Clayton Eslick had his 11-game hitting streak snapped. Sunday’s game was played in two hours and 16 minutes, the second quickest game for the Zags this season after playing the University of the Pacific in 2:13 March 11 in San Antonio.
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