MORAGA, Calif. — The Gaels begin their 2020 season this week as they travel to Texas to face off against Sam Houston State before returning to Moraga for the home opener against Utah.

SCHEDULE
Game #1
Saint Mary's Gaels (2019 Record: 35-22, 17-10 WCC) vs. Sam Houston State Bearkats (2019 Record: 31-25, 20-10 Southland)
Friday, February 14, 4:30 p.m. PT
Huntsville, Texas – Don Sanders Stadium 
Live Stats 

Game #2
Saint Mary's Gaels (2019 Record: 27-18, 12-9 WCC) vs. Sam Houston State Bearkats (2019 Record: 31-25, 20-10 Southland)
Saturday, February 15, 1:00 p.m. PT
Huntsville, Texas – Don Sanders Stadium 
Live Stats 

Game #3
Saint Mary's Gaels (2019 Record: 27-18, 12-9 WCC) vs. Sam Houston State Bearkats (2019 Record: 31-25, 20-10 Southland)
Sunday, February 16, 10:00 p.m. PT
Huntsville, Texas – Don Sanders Stadium
Live Stats 

Game #4
Saint Mary's Gaels (2019 Record: 27-18, 12-9 WCC) vs. Utah Utes (2019 Record: 16-33, 6-24 Pac-12)
Monday, February 17, 2:00 p.m. PT
Moraga, Calif. – Louis Guisto Field
Live Stats 

SCOUTING REPORT
The Gaels begin 2020 on the road with a trip to Huntsville, Texas to take on Sam Houston State in a three-game series beginning on February 14. Saint Mary's comes back home on February 17 to take on the University of Utah for their first matchup since 2016, when the Utes came to Louis Guisto Field. In the five previous matchups between the two programs, all five have come here in California. The quick single game precedes a weekend series in Los Angeles against the Bruins of UCLA. The first homestand of the season is set at nine games and will begin in late February against UC Riverside followed by a three-game series against Seton Hall, making the trip out to Moraga for the first time. Single games on the homestand will also be play against San Jose State (March 3), UC Davis (March 10) and the University of Nevada (March 11).

Last season the Gaels went 35-22, including a spectacular 22-3 at Louis Guisto Field. Saint Mary's made a run in the 2019 WCC Tournament, going all the way to the championship game before falling to LMU in heartbreak fashion 4-2 in ten innings. Saint Mary's opened the 2019 season with a four-game sweep of Washington State where the Gaels accumulated 37 runs compared to the Cougars who earned only 13. SMC also had a number of other series-sweeps throughout the year including three-game sweeps against Utah Valley, Pacific, Portland, and Santa Clara. Saint Mary's has posted winning seasons every year since 2015, including four consecutive 30+ win seasons. The program record for wins in a season was recorded in 1977 when SMC picked up 41 victories, however the Gaels came close in 2017 when they earned 37 wins on the year.

Pitcher Carlos Lomeli has already had a positive start to 2020 as he was recently ranked among D1 Baseball's Analytics: Top 150 (67th) as well as he was named to the All-WCC Preseason Team ahead of the season opener. Lomeli is entering his junior season and is expected to anchor the pitching staff, something he did a great job of in 2019. He earned second-team All-WCC honors following a stellar season that saw him go 10-2 with a 3.05 earned run average across 88.1 innings pitched. He proved to be a workhorse in the rotation, going six or more innings in 9 of his starts, including a complete game shutout against Portland in April. Helping his WHIP, he walked just 13 batters and struck out 58. He twice picked up pitcher of the week honors: first, being named Rawlings Pitcher of the Week on April 8 and then being named WCC Pitcher of the Week on May 20.

SAM HOUSTON STATE
The Bearkats of Huntsville, Texas will be opening their 2020 season with a three-game series at home against Saint Mary's. The team ended the 2019 season with an overall record of 31-25 and they ended the season with a Southland conference record of 20-10. The Bearkats earned the seventh Southland Conference title in program history and third in the last 4 years to culminate the 2019 season. The seven titles are third behind Lamar (10) and Northwestern State (9) for all-time titles in Southland conference history. Sam Houston State has had eight-consecutive winning seasons and they have not had a losing season since 2010 when they ended the year 19-36 overall and 11-22 in conference competition. Sam Houston and SMC have only met one other time in program history and it was back in 2009 at the Sam Houston State Tournament when the Gaels won both games (W 14-6, 2/27/09 & W 4-3, 3/1/09).

Sam Houston State saw leadership shifts in the offseason as Jay Sirianni was promoted to head coach after spending five years as the pitching coach for the Bearkats. This will be Sirianni's first season in a head coaching position and he is the tenth head coach in Sam Houston program history. The Bearkats also have new offensive and defensive coaches as well as recruiting coordinators and assistants, however many of the coaching staff members held roles with Sam Houston prior to being promoted. Current sophomore Colton Cowser had a red-letter season as a true freshman in 2019, earning the Southland conference Hitter of the Year award and becoming the first player in Sam Houston State program history to do so. Cowser was also named to freshman all-America teams prior to the start of the season by D1Baseball.com among other organizations. 

UTAH
The Utes will open the 2020 season with a three-game series against UC Davis before visiting Louis Guisto Field to take on Saint Mary's. Utah went 16-33 over the course of 2019 and posted a Pac-12 conference record of 6-24. Utah won their final two series of the season against Washington State and UC Davis, but was previously on an 11-game losing streak. The Utes ended the season in second-to-last place in the Pac-12 just above Washington State and just below Oregon. The team has posted two consecutive losing seasons and only one winning season (2017, 27-24) since 2011. The Gaels hold the all-time record against the Utes (6-5), and the last time the two teams met it was SMC who secured the 7-2 victory (3/12/16). The first time Saint Mary's and Utah played each other was a three-game series in 1995 when the Gaels swept the Utes.

Utah will have a difficult start to their season in 2020 as they will play the first 16 contests on the road before playing their first home game on March 17 against Utah Valley. All in all, Utah has 21 games at home compared to 32 games on the road and none of their homestands are longer than four games. Utah will look to start their season off with a W as they have not won a series opener since 2015. The Utes enter the 2020 with the 18th ranked recruiting class in the country according to Collegiate Baseball, which is ranked third best in the Pac-12 conference. The Utes added Gary Henderson to the coaching staff ahead of the 2020 season as associate head coach and will focus his efforts on the pitchers. Henderson has a combined 30 years of coaching experience under his belt as he spent time at the University of Florida, Oregon State, University of Kentucky and Mississippi State. Under his tutelage, 72 players have been signed as free agents or selected in the MLB Draft.