Baseball loses to Gonzaga - again
- Thread starter wazzucougs96
- Start date
....and the grass roots talent locally is awful (for reasons beyond WSU) partly due to USA Baseball, MLB, Seattle Mariners, and youth sports culture.
I was going to post the same. It's pretty amazing, if not unreal, that Gonzaga rules the state in both Basketball and Baseball. No need to discuss their hoops, (Few) dynasty.
But...baseball. They SWEEP the COUGS, the Dawgs and are rated # 21. How do they do this? Forget basketball, but how do they recruit players to come to play baseball for Gonzaga that will turn away a Power 5 offer?
Anyone?
But...baseball. They SWEEP the COUGS, the Dawgs and are rated # 21. How do they do this? Forget basketball, but how do they recruit players to come to play baseball for Gonzaga that will turn away a Power 5 offer?
Anyone?
They have super nice facilities plus they play in some sweet locations - Loyola M, San Diego and Pepperdine.
I agree with the sentiment of this string.
I suspect that we are on the road to getting better. Gonzaga can clearly say the same thing. Might turn into a pretty good rivalry!
I suspect that we are on the road to getting better. Gonzaga can clearly say the same thing. Might turn into a pretty good rivalry!
So our new $10.0M baseball facility will indeed help with recruiting. That said, I was not overly impressed with their stadium or field. In addition, it was built in 2007.
They have a pretty nice game field and I believe they are also able to use the Volker (?) Center for weights, nutrition etc which is about 250 yards from the baseball field which was funded with basketball money primarily fir the basketball team. Not sure about indoor batting cages but I’m sure they have them somewhere. Definitely a Long ways from where they were in the early 2000s.
I’ve lived in Spokane 2 1/2 years (west sider). Never understood the animosity towards Gonzaga. After 2 1/2 years I get it. F Gonzaga.
A couple a three things:
1) Staff consistency. Machtolf has been the head coach there for 18 years now and the prior manager was there for 23 seasons. Machtolf also won the CWS as a player at Stanford, so he is no slouch. So that is 2 head coaches in 41 years. Their top assistant has been with the program for 18 years as well, and their pitching coach for 7 seasons. Not to mention they have had the same AD since 2000 or so. I don't know how many schools in the west can compare with this.
2) Good facilities - nothing they have will knock your socks off, but their stadium is really nice and the basketball program has upped the commitment to overall athletics campus they have.
3) Recruiting - I believe they have more guys in the MLB in the last 10 years or so than anyone else in the NW save for Oregon State. That in all reality goes back to the first point, IMO. I also think they care more about beating WSU and UW than we do about beating them, and use that in recruiting. They can point to wins over power 5 schools all day long as a selling point as to why playing for a power 5 doesn't really matter. It is basically the same approach their basketball programs use. We have to find a way to counteract that.
All that said, there is no reason that WSU and UW shouldn't be out recruiting them and out playing them on a regular basis, but their ascent has occurred in a decade where WSU baseball has been in the abyss.
They have a couple of frosh lefties that can chuck mid 90s. Its crazy how they manage to find these guys.
Sucks to say this, but give it a few years. Arms was going to be a major issue for Green. It’s really annoying losing to this team and it’s clear they have more depth in pitching than we do. Green has WSU trending up, but pitching is a adventure right now along with fielding.
While at NMSU Green has 5 players taken in the top 6 rounds, with Gonzales going 7th overall last year. In that same amount of time WSU has had none. I think we’ll get there dominating Gonzaga and be a top 5 conference team.
While at NMSU Green has 5 players taken in the top 6 rounds, with Gonzales going 7th overall last year. In that same amount of time WSU has had none. I think we’ll get there dominating Gonzaga and be a top 5 conference team.
Similar threads
