MORAGA, Calif. — Saint Mary's kept the Cougars close in both games of Saturday's doubleheader but were unable to salvage a win in the three-game series. 

GAME 1 RECAP
BYU 8, Saint Mary's 5

The Gaels (9-17, 0-3 WCC) had a strong offensive showing in the first game of the doubleheader but early runs by BYU would prove to be the difference maker. 

The Cougars (19-17, 3-0) held a 5-1 lead heading into the bottom of the second after putting up three in the first and two in the second. Rylee Jensen delivered the big blow for BYU as she hit a two-run homer with two outs. 

SMC continued to chip away at BYU's lead however as they scored one in the third inning thanks to Alex Casas' RBI single and then scored two more in the fifth after Julia McCormack cranked a single to center field to make it a 6-4 game. 

Saint Mary's trailed 8-4 going into the bottom of the seventh but crossed one more run after a BYU error in the infield. Sasa Koria came to bat next and represented the tying run but the Cougars' Carley Brown managed to strike her out to end the game. 

SMC had more hits than BYU in the game, 10-8. Indya Smith had a 3-for-3 game at the dish while Jayda Alaan and Casas each had multihit performances. Casas scored three of the team's five runs. 

GAME 2 RECAP 
BYU 1, Saint Mary's 0

The second game of the day ended up being a pitching duel between Sofia Earle of the Gaels and Autumn Moffat-Korth from BYU. Both pitchers threw complete games and combined to strike out 13 batters. 

Earle gave up only three hits to the Cougars and danced around six walks to allow just a single run. Unfortunately for the Gaels, two of the three hits by BYU were triples including an RBI triple in the fifth that ended up being the lone run scored in the contest. 

Saint Mary's had five runs and six hits in just 2.1 innings against Moffat-Korth yesterday but had a hard time getting the offense going today. The righthander had a no-hitter through six innings and lost it with one out in the seventh as McCormack singled up the middle. 

The Gaels put two runners on in the seventh after another error by BYU but couldn't capitalize on the mistake. Moffat-Korth struck out the final batter of the game to earn the shutout and the win for the Cougars. 

UP NEXT: FRESNO STATE
SMC will take a break from conference play next weekend and instead travel down to Fresno to play the Bulldogs on Saturday. The first game of the doubleheader begins at 1 p.m.