STOCKTON, Calif. — BYU baseball saw history Thursday night.

But for the Cougars, the history came on the Gonzaga mound.

Bulldogs pitcher Brandon Bailey posted a tournament-record 17 strikeouts to lift Gonzaga to a 5-3 win over No. 30 BYU in the opening round of the West Coast Conference Tournament in Stockton, California.

Bailey, who threw 103 strikeouts during the regular season for second-most in the league, gave up six hits with just one walk in the complete-game effort.

Three of those hits were home runs. Keaton Kringlen, Bronson Larsen and Eric Urry each blasted a solo shot over the wall in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings for BYU (37-16). But it proved to be too late as the WCC co-champion Bulldogs (34-17) scored three of their five runs in the fifth.

Michael Rucker (11-1) allowed just six hits with five strikeouts and four earned runs. The junior Gonzaga transfer took his first loss of the year, while holding his former team scoreless in six frames.

Sam Brown went 2-for-4 with two runs and two RBI to lead Gonzaga, and WCC player of the year Jeff Bohling was 2-for-4 with three RBI.

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BYU right-hander Michael Rucker has been as good as any pitcher in the nation — one of just four pitchers in NCAA Division I baseball to have at least 10 wins with no losses. But a pitcher is only as good as the bats behind him — and those have been pretty good, too.

Kringlen finished 2-for-4 for BYU and Larsen went 2-for-3 as the duo combined for four of the Cougars’ six hits on the night.

BYU will face fourth-seeded Pepperdine at 1 p.m. MT Friday in the double-elimination tournament. Gonzaga advances to face fell three-way champion Saint Mary’s at 4:35 p.m. MT. The loser of the latter game will face the winner of the former at 8:30 p.m. MT before Saturday’s WCC championship.

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