MORAGA, Calif. — Thursday afternoon's loss to Portland featured just two hits for Saint Mary's Baseball in 13 innings. The Gaels worked to quickly put that behind them and on Friday afternoon, they did just that in a big way. Using their biggest offensive output of the season, Saint Mary's flew past Portland with a final score of 14-2, scoring the game's final 14 runs. With the win, Saint Mary's goes back over .500 with a 13-12 record (3-5 in WCC) while Portland falls to 12-13 (5-3).
 
BREAKING THROUGH
Saint Mary's got the offense going in the bottom of the third inning, and did so with some unconventional offense. Nick Mistone was hit by a pitch with one out, and Christopher Campos doubled him over to third. A fielder's choice that did not produce an out scored a run, and brought up Eric Smelko, who helped the Gaels execute the suicide squeeze bunt, scoring a run and leading to everyone being safe. Down 2-1 at the time, the Gaels then used back-to-back bases loaded walks from Jacob Talamante and Justin Banks to take a 3-2 lead after three. In the fifth, it was Banks again doing some damage, this time with a line drive home run to right field, his sixth of the season, to make it 4-2 SMC.
 
BLOWING AWAY
The Gaels scored ten times in the sixth inning, after their season best for runs in a game was eight overall. Mistone reached on a fielding error, and Campos moved him to third with a single. Ryan Ellis drove in the first of his three runs that inning with a sacrifice fly, and then the wheels fell off. Smelko singled to center field to score one run, and Talamante and Banks followed with singles of their own to load the bases. Blake Mann walked and that brought on the third different pitcher of the inning for Portland. Austin Elder delivered his first two RBIs of the season with a single to right field, then walks to Gabe Giosso and Mistone helped score another. Christopher Campos blooped a double to right field that plated two, and then Ellis ripped a double to left that scored two more, and suddenly the Gaels were up 14-2.
 
BOWER OUTAGE DURING A POWER OUTAGE
For the second day in a row, a power outage wreaked havoc on the campus of Saint Mary's and forced operations crews to do a great job just in getting the games underway with enough power. Fortunately for the Gaels, Sam Bower brought yet another Bower Outage on the mound. After allowing a pair of runs in the first inning, he settled down nicely, throwing seven innings of shutout baseball after the first. It was the longest outing of the season for a Gaels pitcher, going eight innings with five hits allowed, two runs, two walks, and four strikeouts to earn his fourth win of the season.
 
UP NEXT
The series concludes on Saturday afternoon with the rubber game between Saint Mary's and Portland, with first pitch at 1:00 pm. The Gaels will send Ky Bush to the mound in search of their first series win in WCC play this season. For SMC, they will look to start another win streak, after recording streaks of five and four earlier this season.