MORAGA, Calif. — For the final time in the 2021 season, Saint Mary's and San Francisco squared off on the diamond, with the extra game from their WCC series shifting over to Louis Guisto Field. With both teams locked up 2-2 in the season series, and with both teams attempting to get back to the .500-mark, Saint Mary's found that home cooking tasted awfully sweet. The Gaels used a big fifth inning and some great defensive plays to take Monday's game 5-4 against the Dons, improving to 22-22 on the season while taking three out of five games overall against USF.
 
FIVE FOR FIGHTING
Things were quite uneventful until the fifth inning, when Saint Mary's hung five runs up on the board. The first six hitters of the inning reached base safely, with Austin Elder getting it started on his second hit of the day. Walks to Javy Espinoza and Coleman Schmidt followed, and the Gaels had the bases loaded for Kyle Velazquez, who singled to center to plate the first run of the game. Justin Banks followed with a groundball up the middle that scored another run, with everyone reaching safely. Then Blake Mann sent a sharp grounder through the left side for a two-run single, suddenly making it 4-0, still with nobody out. After a sacrifice bunt, Chris Santiago delivered a sacrifice fly to right field to cap off the scoring at 5-0 and give the Gaels all they needed.
 
GREAT START, GREAT FINISH
Saint Mary's received a great Monday start from Carlos Lomeli, pitching for the second time in the series. He retired the first 10 batters he faced, and was able to get through 4.1 innings while allowing just one hit and striking out four, including a big strikeout with the bases loaded in the fourth inning of a scoreless game to end the frame. It took six relievers behind Lomeli to finish off the ballgame, but with the score 5-4 in the late innings, the Gaels turned to Preston Howey and Michael Hobbs to save it. Those two retired all six they faced on three strikeouts, with Hobbs recording his team-best sixth save of the season.
 
DEPENDING ON THE DEFENSE
Defensive plays don't typically receive much attention in games, but the defense deserves credit for helping the Gaels pitching staff on Monday. In the third inning, Santiago helped Lomeli get to eight in a row retired with a stellar bare-handed play on a ground ball, making a strong throw on the run. In the fifth inning, Ryan Ellis caught a shallow fly ball in left field and doubled off the Dons runner at second to end the inning. In the eighth, Kyle Velazquez made one of the longest throws of the season from deep in the hole at shortstop to end the inning on a groundout. For good measure, in the ninth, defensive replacement Ryan Novis came on and made a diving catch on the warning track in foul territory to get the first out of the inning for Hobbs.
 
UP NEXT
Saint Mary's and LMU will get together for the final regular season series of conference play for the Gaels. The three-game series begins on Friday afternoon at 3:00 pm, with 1:00 pm starts set for the Saturday and Sunday affairs. Sunday's ballgame will be Senior Day for Saint Mary's.