SB | 2019 Season Preview

Saint Mary's opens their season this Thursday at the Hawai'i Paradise Classic.

MORAGA, Calif. — Saint Mary's opens their season this Thursday at the Hawai'i Paradise Classic and will play fives games during the three day tournament. The Gaels take the field for the first time under first year head coach Sonja Garnett at 6:30 p.m. against Georgia State.

THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE
Saint Mary's will play Georgia State on Thursday and then doubleheaders on both Friday and Saturday before returning home. On Friday, the Gaels take on Fresno State at 11 a.m. and then face UT Arlington at 4. On the final day of play, Saint Mary's plays UCLA, who finished last season ranked No. 2 in the nation, at 3 p.m. immediately followed by a game against the host, Hawai'i, at 5.

THE NEWCOMERS
This year's softball team will feature eight fresh faces, including four freshmen. Those freshmen include Kalissa Heihn, Alyssa Vessel, Kayla Ching, and Sofia Earle.

The other four newcomers are transfers who carry impressive track records with them.

Sophomore utility Jayda Alaan followed Garnett from ART U and posted a .417 on-base percentage last season for the Urban Knights. Another position player, sophomore Mazzie Davies, played at Simpson University as a freshman and batted .467 to finish the season eighth in the nation at the NAIA level. Junior Madison Mitchell comes from St. Lawrence University and led her team in strikeouts while posting a 3.79 ERA. Finally, sophomore Savannah Berkowitz played last year at Fresno State and threw 21.2 innings for the Bulldogs.

THE SENIORS
The Gaels will have three seniors this season in Abbey Mariani, Dylan Linton, and Bailey Lotz. All three seniors started 37 or more games last season.

Mariani was an All-WCC Honorable Mention last season and had seven runs batted in as the team's starting right fielder. Linton started all 49 games in 2018 and was third on the team in stolen bases. Lotz posted cracked seven extra base hits and drove in 13 runs while manning first base.

QUICK FACTS

Sophomore Kimiko Zapanta returns to the team after setting the WCC record for stolen bases in a season with 39 last year.
Sophomore Julia McCormack batted .266 her freshman year and had a team-high .468 slugging percentage in 48 games.
Pitcher Eileen Perez will look to build off her successful freshman campaign where she threw a team-high 128 innings of 3.34 ERA softball.
The Gaels roster features four freshmen, seven sophomores, seven juniors, and three seniors.