SPOKANE, Washington—A respectable appearance Saturday on national TV went the way of Gonzaga, 6-2, as it tied BYU for the regular season league baseball title.

With a late-evening ESPNU TV audience watching, the No. 18 Cougars battled back from a 5-0 deficit as they sought to win an outright West Coast Conference crown. In the end, the two teams tied with 20-7 WCC records.

Gonzaga, 31-17 overall, widened its lead to 3-0 from a two-run homer by Tyler Frost in the third inning. The Cougars, now 33-18, minimized the damage on a run-saving throw by Brock Hale to peg Justin Jacobs out at the plate, ending the third inning.

BYU had nabbed Jacobs on a base-running error to end the first inning after Jeff Bohling’s sharp single glanced off the glove of third baseman Nate Favero. Shortstop Daniel Schneemann snared that ricocheted ball and threw to pitcher Hayden Rogers covering third for the out

With two outs in the fourth inning, Mason Marshall spelled starter Rogers when the Bulldogs scored their fourth run of the game.

To this point the best BYU could muster was a pair of singles in the third and fourth innings by Bronson Larsen and Keaton Kringlen to no avail. Then Larsen hit a one-out gap double off the left-center wall in the fifth, but was stranded.

Brennon Anderson got on base for 25th game in a row with a dribbling infield single to lead off the sixth inning which precipitated into BYU’s first run of the game when Kringlen belted a one-out double to the left-center wall. That caused Gonzaga to make its first pitching change of the game with Cougars at second and third.

Brock Hale beat out a throw to first after it looked like he had lined out to short, but the ball dropped out of the glove to load the bases. Shaver’s bloop single plopped into no man’s land in right field to plate Schneemann and cut the margin to 5-2.

By the time Anderson came up the next inning, his second single of the game was BYU’s ninth hit of the game, three behind the Zag tally to that point. Chauncey followed Anderson’s single with one of his own, but the duo were stranded at second and third in the sixth.

The Cougars next play Loyola Marymount on Thursday evening in the opening round of the West Coast Conference Tournament in Stockton, California at 7 p.m. PDT, as either the No. 2 or 3 seed pending the outcome of Sunday’s LMU game at Portland.

At least share of first place in the West Coast Conference is guaranteed for BYU baseball’s team that remains ranked No. 18 prior to hosting Utah Valley University on Tuesday night.

The Cougars (32-15 and 20-4 in the WCC) can win their first outright league title with one win in the three-game series at Gonzaga. But first BYU needs to finish out the home season against UVU (16-32) in the UCCU Crosstown Clash with Jordan Wood (4-0, 6.12) starting for the Cougars.

Gonzaga (28-17 and 17-7) is tied for second in the WCC with Loyola Marymount and could create a co- or tri- championship title with a sweep by either or both of these teams this week.

Currently the Cougars are seeded no worse than third for the WCC Tournament in two weeks at Stockton, California. A win by either Gonzaga or LMU would fill two of the remaining three spots for the tourney. San Diego and Saint Mary’s are still in contention for the fourth spot.

For the second week in a row, BYU is ranked No. 18 in the nation by Collegiate Baseball magazine. However, Cougar first baseman Tanner Chauncey dropped to No. 2 in the NCAA in the category toughest to strike out (now eight times in 194 at bats).

Sophomore Brock Hale became the second Cougar to earn Rawlings WCC Player of the Week honors, joining Keaton Kringlen. Hale has led the team in batting average since the end of February and had nine RBI last week, including home runs against Utah to start the week and in the final game against Portland.

At Gonzaga, the Cougars will continue with their three-man pitching rotation of Maverik Buffo (6-5, 5.37), Brady Corless (6-0, 4.91) and Hayden Rogers (7-1, 3.46). Saturday’s final game of the BYU-Gonzaga series will be televised nationally at 7:30 p.m. PDT by ESPNU with Roxy Bernstein and Wes Chandler as the announcers. The games on Thursday and Friday will start at 6 p.m. PDT. Friday’s game will be streamed on theW.tv with George Devine and Alex Jensen calling the action.

For more detailed information, see multi-page PDF below