MORAGA, Calif. –– The Gaels played a marathon day of baseball on Saturday in which they won the first game 14-8 despite an hour-long rain delay. The second game was played through the seventh inning before being postponed until Sunday at 11 a.m.

GAME ONE
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Cougars got the scoring started on Saturday morning after a lead-off double followed by a successful bunt. The bunt moved the runner to third base, but a wide throw to first scored the runner from third and landed the batter on second base, giving Washington State an early 1-0 lead. A line drive up the middle scored the runner, but an out at second ended the first half of the inning with the Cougars on top 2-0. The Gaels responded with runs of their own after a walk for Kevin Milam and a double to deep right center by Ryan Novis scored Milam. The first inning ended with the Gaels trailing the Cougars 2-1.
  
   
• The Gaels got into more trouble in the second inning as Milam walked back-to-back batters followed by a bunt that loaded the bases with no outs. A sac-fly to short left center scored the runner on third followed by a single to left center that scored the fourth run of the game for the Cougars. Milam bounced back and struck out the next batter and then a pop-up to shallow left field ended the top of the second with the Cougars ahead 4-1. Washington State led off the third inning with a homerun to right field before Milam recovered and struck out the side.

 

• Saint Mary's responded in the bottom of the fourth with a seven-run inning which saw the go-ahead, three-run, double to deep right center from Joe Vranesh and a two-run, double to right field from Novis that put the Gaels ahead 8-5. The Gaels sent 11 batters to the plate in the inning including hits from Austin Chauvin, Matt Green, Eddie Haus, and Conor Thane. The Cougars led off the top of the fifth with another homerun, but still remained behind the Gaels 8-6.
  
  
   
• The Cougars drove in another run in the top of the sixth inning to make it 8-7 Gaels, but Saint Mary's was able to keep the lead. Vranesh hit another double in the bottom of the sixth, this time to the warning track in left center followed by an intentional walk of Milam. A wild-pitch to Gio Diaz advanced the runners to second and third, before Diaz dropped a line drive into short right field to score Vranesh and bring the Gaels their ninth run of the game. Another wild-pitch scored Milam from third to give the Gaels the 10-7 lead. Shortly after, a rain delay was called and the game was on hold for an hour and four minutes.

 

• The Gaels started off the bottom of the seventh by loading the bases before Diaz took a pitch to the thigh and improved the SMC lead to 11-7. They tacked on another three runs in the bottom of the eighth including two runs off of a triple to deep center field from Vranesh who was hitting 4-for-6 with five RBI. The Gaels went into the final inning of the game leading the Cougars 14-7. A two-out, solo homerun capped the Cougars offensive effort in the top of the ninth and Saint Mary's went on to win the first game 14-8.

QUOTABLES

"The guys have a good feeling at the plate," said head coach Eric Valenzuela. "When you have a team that is confident offensively, you're able to string the hits together and that's what we did. Our offense is really swinging the bats well."

NOTABLE NUMBERS

• 27: Total number of hits for the Gaels through the first two games of the season.
• 9: Combined number of strikeouts for SMC pitchers on Saturday (Milam 6 K, Madrigal 1 K, Hansen 2 K).
• 37: Pitches for Andrew Hansen in his collegiate debut with the Gaels (25 strikes).
• 11: Batters up to the plate for Saint Mary's in the seven-run, fourth inning.

COMING UP

• The Gaels will resume the final two innings of the second game on Sunday at 11 a.m. Then they will wrap up their four-game series against Washington State with first pitch of the final game at 1 p.m.
   
• Tickets for Saturday's final home game are available for purchase on SMCGaels.com or by calling the SMC Ticket Office at (925) 631-GoTx. Fans can find all live coverage links on SMCGaels.com.