March 25, 2008
Box Score
Moraga, CA - A 12 foot hop on a ground ball over the heads of both sophomore second baseman Randy Wells and junior shortstop Joel Staples, provided the go ahead run as UC Davis (14-7) defeated Saint Mary's (13-8-1) in 10 innings Tuesday afternoon at Louis Guisto Field, by a score of 7-6.
The top of the 10th proved to be unkind to the Gaels as a bloop shot single from the Aggies lead off hitter Jake Jefferies landed safely in shallow left field on a 1-2 count. After a sac bunt Jefferies ended up at second base when UC Davis's hot hitter Ryan Scoma hit a hard hit ball to Wells. The ball took a nasty hop bouncing over Wells and Staples who was backing him up, scoring Jefferies to put the Aggies on top for good.
The inning was especially hard on sophomore Anthony Aliotti (1-2) who earned his second loss of the season on the bad break. Even more disappointing was the fact that until the 10th Aliotti was having his best outing since his start earlier in the year against UC Davis.
Aliotti struke out three in his first inning of work and had a very sharp breaking ball, his numbers on the day were three innings pitched, surrendering three hits, one earned run, no walks, and striking out a season high five batters.
UC Davis started the scoring on the day when senior center fielder Ryan Royster hit a leadoff homerun, his sixth of the season. The homerun came off Gaels starting pitcher Alex Schmarzo who pitched three very effective innings.
The Gaels took the early lead scoring a run in the bottom of the first, again in the second, and scored twice in the third of a two run homerun from Staples, to make the game 4-1 in favor of Saint Marys.
Staples had a great day at the plate, going 2-for-4 with a double and a homerun, while scoring two runs and knocking in a pair of runs. Staples is starting to get hot at just the right time for Saint Mary's, as SMC opens league play this Friday at home against USF.
The Gaels managed to make it very interesting as they scored a tying run in the bottom of the eighth after a sharply hit ball from sophomore Michael Cippolla, the error from Aggies shortstop Scott Heylman allowed sophomore third baseman Scott Schneider to score his second run of the game.
The winning pitcher for UC Davis was junior Justin Fitzgerald(2-1) who went 1.2 innings pitched, giving up two hits, no earned runs and striking out two.
The loss to the Aggies means the season series is split a game a piece with the winning team doing so on the road.
The Gaels will resume play Friday March 28th at Louis Guisto Field, with a 2:00 PM first pitch. It will be the first game of a three game series against conference rival USF.
