Gonzaga Baseball Cleans Up at WCC Awards as Mark Machtolf, Nine Players Garner Accolades
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Gonzaga Bulldogs third baseman Mikey Bell (5) celebrates with teammate Maddox Haley (20) after his game-winning hit against Seattle U at Steve Hertz Field at the Patterson Baseball Complex. Credit: Gonzaga Athletics [/caption]
When a team wins a conference by more than six games, it figures that they’ll be notably represented when postseason awards roll around.
Of the 59 names listed across the various West Coast award categories, 14 of them are members of Gonzaga baseball, as nine different Bulldogs were honored at least once for their individual performance this season. That means nearly a quarter of the honorees were Zags.
GU nearly swept the five major awards, only missing out on Defensive Player of the Year. Mark Machtolf won his sixth WCC Coach of the Year honor, Mikey Bell went back-to-back in Player of the Year Voting, Karsten Sweum took home Pitcher of the Year, and Landon Hood won the Freshman of the Year award. Bell leads the slew of right-handed Bulldog sluggers recognition, while a senior pitcher got some shine as well in his final year in Spokane.
What was special about each of their seasons, and who else brought home the hardware?
Mark Machtolf: WCC Coach of the Year
It was a year full of accolades for Machtolf, who became Gonzaga’s all-time leader in wins in early April. He heads into the conference tournament in Scottsdale with 658 career victories after leading the Zags to the No. 1 seed, as they posted a 35-17 season overall while winning 22 of their 27 games in WCC action. The six-and-a-half-game gap in the wins column between them and four other teams was the largest winning margin the conference has had since 1992.
It’s Machtolf’s first Coach of the Year award in four years, which was a back-to-back victory for him after winning it in 2021 as well. His teams went 20-7 in each of those seasons.
The Bulldogs ended the regular season on a seven-game winning streak and notched five sweeps against conference opponents. They led the league in runs (401), doubles (135), home runs (62), RBI (369), hits allowed (419), and strikeouts induced (509). GU currently sits at No. 50 in the RPI rankings and has accumulated several top-25 votes in national polls this year.
The 61-year-old skipper has been at the helm in Spokane since 2004 and is looking to lead the program to its first regional since 2022.
Mikey Bell: WCC Player of the Year, All-WCC First Team
Conference Stats: .430/.478/.719; 6 HR, 52 H, 17 2B, 32 RBI, 35 R, 87 TB
Back for an encore in his redshirt junior campaign, Bell has become just the second WCC player ever to win back-to-back Player of the Year Awards. After transferring in from Cuesta College two years ago, the Zags’ third baseman has been an extra-base hit machine in the heart of the order. This season, he outpaced the conference in hits, doubles, slugging percentage, and runs scored.
Bell had a 21-game hitting streak going at one point and notched three games with at least five hits, which is the same number of hitless games he logged during conference action. His 24 doubles over the full season rank fourth in the country, and he is now hitting .379 in his two-year tenure with the Zags. With another year of eligibility left, Bell has a chance to go down as one of the best hitters in Gonzaga history.
Karsten Sweum: WCC Pitcher of the Year, All-WCC First Team
Conference Stats: 7-0, 2.62 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 55.0 IP, 80 K, 22 BB, .198 BAA, No-Hitter
When Sweum tossed six innings of one-run ball against No. 13 Oklahoma back in March, signs were already pointing toward the sophomore southpaw putting together a breakout season.
Keeping batters off balance all year, Sweum fooled the opposition with his devastating changeup. He finished the season with 108 punchouts, leading the league and slotting him 13th among all Division I pitchers. His brilliant campaign is highlighted by his seven-inning no-hitter against San Francisco on May 9, where Sweum struck out 15 Dons on 93 pitches. In conference play, he led all pitchers in ERA while posting a 35.2% strikeout rate and a 9.7% walk rate, and he was also the only pitcher to hold hitters to a sub-.200 average against him.
Sweum struck out 11 in a win versus Portland on April 11 and punched out 10 in 7 2/3 frames against LMU two weeks later. He finished the year on a 16-inning scoreless streak with 31 strikeouts in that stretch. Five of Sweum’s nine outings in WCC play were quality starts as he didn’t go less than five innings in any of those starts, and he came two outs shy of finishing first in the conference in innings pitched. Simply put, when Sweum toed the rubber each Saturday for the Zags, a stellar performance was likely.
Landon Hood: WCC Freshman of the Year, All-WCC Second Team, All-WCC Freshman Team
Conference Stats: 1-1, 4.38 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, 24.2 IP, 4 SV, 35 K, 9 BB, .227 BAA
After he won six Freshman of the Week awards during the season, it should be of no surprise that Landon Hood was named the WCC’s best freshman over the course of the year.
The hard-throwing right-hander was a multi-inning reliever for most of the season but made four starts that heavily impacted his ERA. Three of those outings were in succession, and Hood allowed 12 earned runs in 12 2/3 innings with eight walks in that span. Hood’s final start of the season was his best, when he allowed two runs to San Francisco over 5 1/3 frames with six punchouts.
But across Hood’s 29 2/3 other innings that came as a reliever, he allowed only one run all year. That was surrendered during his last appearance of the regular season against Seattle U on a solo homer. Boasting a strikeout rate of 32.7% with truly dominant stuff, Hood was a certified weapon for the Bulldogs out of the bullpen in his first year of collegiate baseball.
Maddox Haley: All-WCC First Team
Conference Stats: .364/.418/.627; 7 HR, 40 H, 28 RBI, 26 R, 69 TB
Taking his best shot at Joe DiMaggio, Haley logged a 29-game hitting streak during his junior campaign. His unbelievable run at the plate was highlighted by a 14-for-19 stretch where he tallied 34 total bases, earning national honors for his performance.
After not being an everyday player to begin the season, Haley continued to hit when he got opportunities, forcing Machtolf to keep the outfielder in the lineup – even if he needed to DH each game.
He finished tied for second on Gonzaga in hits, homers, and runs scored, and third in RBI, total bases, and slugging percentage. Haley was also one of three Bulldogs to finish the year with an OPS north of 1.000.
Ryder Young: All-WCC First Team
Conference Stats: .348/.420/.670; 10 HR, 40 H, 34 RBI, 26 R, 77 TB
Always providing the big swing for GU, Young led the conference in big flies – the only player in the WCC to finish in double digits in that category. He also drove in the second-most runs in the league and wound up fifth in the conference in OPS, his mark also eclipsing the 1.000 threshold.
The Zags’ left fielder put up a hitting streak of 13 games during his junior season. Although only 5-9, he packed a lot of punch in his frame and cemented himself as a dependable run producer in the heart of Gonzaga’s lineup.
Justin Feld: All-WCC First Team
Conference Stats: 7-1, 3.47 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 49.1 IP, 48 K, 20 BB, .228 BAA
After a rough 2025 campaign, it all came back for Feld in 2026. Beginning the year as a spot starter during midweek contests and available out of the bullpen, Feld finished the season as the Zags’ reliable Friday starter.
Of his eight starts in WCC play, Feld tallied five quality starts. He and Sweum were the only WCC pitchers to garner more than five victories, giving Gonzaga a chance to win each time he took the mound.
Although his 22.9% strikeout rate is rather pedestrian, Feld notched 19 looking strikeouts, which tied for the most in the conference. Against LMU on April 24, he fanned 12 Lions in 6 2/3 frames while surrendering just one earned run.
Ricky Sánchez: All-WCC Second Team
Conference Stats: .343/.458/.429; 36 H, 9 2B, 13 RBI, 22 BB
Following a slow start to the season at the dish, Sánchez clubbed three homers against Indiana State, the Bulldogs’ final game before conference play commenced. But those turned out to be the final big flies he would hit in the regular season, as the 5-7 shortstop resorted to spraying the ball over the yard and picking up modest base hits for the remainder of the year.
It served Sánchez well though, as his performance caused Machtolf to move him to the leadoff spot. He took what opposing pitchers gave him and was as disciplined as they come, finishing second in the WCC in walks, one short of tying for the league lead. Finishing the year with a higher on-base percentage than slugging percentage, Sánchez was the prototypical guy to set the table for the high-powered Zags offense.
Noah Meffert: All-WCC Honorable Mention
Conference Stats: .308/.333/.567; 5 HR, 10 2B, 1 3B, 23 RBI, 32 H, 22 R, 59 TB
Although he has the biggest swing-and-miss trait in Gonzaga’s lineup, Meffert made up for it with his slug. The redshirt senior right fielder ended the season second on the Zags in doubles while also recording one of the team’s two triples.
In his first year in Spokane, the tenured Coupeville, Wash. native continued to produce as he has at the other stops in his collegiate career.
Jacob Wrubleski: All-WCC Honorable Mention
Conference Stats: .354/.441/.557; 3 HR, 15 RBI, 28 H, 7 2B, 19 R
After not getting much run during non-conference play, Wrubleski hit himself into position to take the reins as the Bulldogs’ starting backstop.
He came up two points shy of the illustrious 1.000 OPS mark but gave it his best go by collecting a hit in each of his last 10 games. Wrubleski ended the year with the third-highest average and on-base percentage for Gonzaga, bringing a notable bat to the table while holding it down behind the plate defensively.
