May 7, 2008
Box Score
San Francisco, CA - In a beautiful afternoon at Benedetti Diamond, the Gaels managed to do what they could not do yesterday and that was avoid the big inning, as Saint Mary's (23-23-1) defeated San Francisco (29-21) by a final score of 6-5.
The Gaels got a dominant pitching performance from Anthony Aliotti (2-2) who was perfect through four innings. His perfect game was broken up when the Dons Mitchell Bialosky led off the bottom of the fifth and laced a single up the middle on a 1-2 count. On the afternoon Aliotti went 5.2 innings, scattering two hits, two runs, both earned, three walks and three strike outs.
Aliotti got into a little trouble in the top of the sixth, after getting two quick outs, back to back walks and a two run double from Bialosky ended his spectacular performance.
Offensively the Gaels took advantage of a rough outing from Dons starter Joe Oropeza (0-2) who could not make it out of the first inning as the Gaels sent up 10 batters and tallied four runs. Kyle Jensen and Kenny Fuglerud had RBI singles and Randy Wells had a two run double.
The Gaels added an insurance run in the top of seventh when Joel Staples singled up the middle scoring Justin Fazio. Following a two run bottom of the seventh from the Dons, the Gaels were leading 5-4 going into the top of the ninth. Jensen led off the ninth with a double to left field. Fuglerud advanced Jensen to third on a ground ball hit to the second baseman. After an intentional walk to pinch hitter Ryan Young, Brian Hawkins lined a groundball through the left side to give the Gaels a two run lead going into the bottom of the ninth.
Scott Schneider came into the close out the game for Saint Mary's and picked things up where he left them in Miami striking out the first two batters he faced, in fact in both those at bats, he the Dons only swung once. Schneider's lone blemish of the inning was a no-doubt homerun over the right field wall to pinch hitter Matt Lieb. After a walk to Zack Kim and a single to Joey Railey, Schneider finally got that final out getting Connor Bernatz to ground out to Wells to end the game.
On the afternoon Jensen went 2-for-3, scoring two runs and knocking in his 43rd RBI of the season, he also clubbed his 12th double of the year, giving him 25 extra base hits on the season. Fuglerud went 3-for-5 with three singles, extending his hit streak to seven games. Out of the designated hitter role, Justin Fazio went 2-for-4 with two doubles. Hawkins and Wells also collected multiple hits on the afternoon.
Aside from his relief pitching performance this afternoon, Schneider also played beautiful defense at third making back to back gold-glove plays in the bottom of the third.
The Gaels will resume their long week, when they head down to Santa Clara for a three game series, beginning with a 7:00 PM game on Friday, May 9th.
