By Trisha Garcia
The Gonzaga baseball team doesn’t play in the Valley often, but when the Bulldogs made the trip from the Pacific Northwest to Phoenix to face Grand Canyon University in their season opener, it was a homecoming for pitcher Calvin LeBrun and left fielder Tyler Frost.
Both sophomores are Phoenix natives that found a home playing for the West Coast Conference team located in Spokane, Wash.
The pair will experience a different kind of familiar feeling Friday when Gonzaga takes on Arizona State in the opening round of NCAA Tournament competition at the TCU regional in Fort Worth, Texas.
Frost, who attended Greenway High, has started all but two games for the Bulldogs and is batting .313 with a team-leading 48 RBIs.
LeBrun, a Sunnyslope High product, has appeared in 16 games and has a 5-4 record and 4.97 ERA.
Gonzaga (35-19) is the No. 3 seed in the regionals. ASU (34-21) is the No. 2 seed.
Last weekend, the Bulldogs clinched a spot in the WCC title game with a walk-off home run by Frosts to down Pepperdine.
It was the first walk-off homer in the program in eight years.
“I’m still soaking it in, that’s my first ever,” Frost said. “It felt great. I couldn’t even tell you what pitch I hit. My home runs came from good pitches and good locations to where I could put a barrel on it and give it a chance to go out.”
Frost and LeBrun enjoyed their trip to the Valley early in the season because they were able to play in front of familiar faces.
“I love coming home and being able to pitch in front of family and friends,” LeBrun said.
LeBrun was the 2012 Division II Section III Player of the Year, as selected by the state’s coaches, and followed his older brother, Cory LeBrun, to Gonzaga.
Frost earned Arizona’s Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior at Greenway, while also playing two years of golf and two years of football.
“I got an applause when my name was called,” Frost said. “It’s awesome. I like being back home.”
Now their focus is on beating ASU and helping Gonzaga advance in the postseason.
