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SPOKANE, Wash. --- The Gonzaga Bulldogs broke a scoreless tie with a run in the bottom of the seventh inning before adding two more in the eighth to claim a 3-0 win over the Portland Pilots in the finale of a three-game West Coast Conference series played on Saturday afternoon at the Patterson Baseball Complex. The Pilots (8-33, 2-16 WCC) left 11 base runners stranded, while the Zags (15-23, 11-7) held a slim 10-8 advantage in hits.
 
Portland also had two base runners thrown out at the plate as the Bulldogs avoided falling behind in the pitcher's duel.  After leaving two runners stranded during both the first and second innings, Davis Tominaga hit a one-out triple in the third. But Tominaga was then cut down at the plate on a ball to third base off the bat of Ryan Littlefield.
 
In the fifth inning, Turner Gill, who had led off with a double to left-center field, was thrown out at home trying to score on a single by Littlefield.
 
The Bulldogs then got on the scoreboard in the seventh after the Pilots left two more stranded in top half of the frame. Joey Harris gave Gonzaga the 1-0 lead when he sent a run-scoring single to right field to bring home Cory LeBrun, who had previously doubled and moved over the third on a Portland error.
 
Gonzaga then pushed across two more in the eighth to claim a three-run lead. This time Jimmy Sinatro and pinch hitter Beau Bozett picked up the RBI's.
 
GU's Andrew Sopko (4-2) then retired the side in order in the top of the ninth to cap his complete-game win. Sopko did well to avoid damage all day long, surrendering eight hits and three walks. He did strike out six.
 
Portland's Chad Kjemhus (1-1) was effective in his first start of the season, limiting the Bulldogs to one run on seven hits in 6.2 innings. Reliever Brandon Snyder was responsible for GU's two runs in the eighth.
 
The Pilots next return home to host the San Francisco Dons for a three-game WCC series at Joe Etzel Field, which begins at 3 p.m. on Friday. The series begins a stretch of 10 home dates out of the Pilots' final 11 games to end the season.