MORAGA, Calif. — Saturday afternoon marked the penultimate game of the WCC season for Saint Mary's Baseball, and a chance to get back even against the LMU Lions. After dropping the series opener on Friday, Saint Mary's again took an early lead against the Lions into the middle innings, but for the second day in a row, the Gaels were unable to hold that lead and it led to an LMU win with a 6-4 final. LMU secures the series and is now 18-27 (11-12) while Saint Mary's drops to 22-24 (10-16) overall.
 
BAD TO THE BONE
When Christopher Campos pitches at home, he warms up to "Bad To The Bone" by George Thorogood. With the way he has been hitting in this series, however, that song applies more to his offense. After driving in five runs on Friday, Campos brought home the first two runs of the game for Saint Mary's on Saturday, giving him seven in the series. In the first inning, he flew out to deep left field, but it went into the books as a sacrifice fly, scoring Kyle Velazquez to give the Gaels a 1-0 lead. In the third, he hit with two on and two down, and came through with a line drive double to the gap in deep left-center, plating Nick Mistone and making it 2-0. For the series, Campos is now 4-7 with two doubles and those seven runs batted in.
 
BANKS ARE OPEN
With the offense scuffling and the Gaels trailing 6-2, Saint Mary's turned to their biggest source of power to get them back into the game in the bottom of the eighth. Jacob Talamante opened up the inning with a single, and two batters later, Justin Banks was the man with the plan. He hit a high-arching home run to deep right field for his team-best tenth long ball of the 2021 season. Saint Mary's then trailed 6-4 and continued to try and pressure the Lions, but could never get closer than 6-4.
 
QUICK ANSWERS
As was the case on Friday, when the Gaels got up, the Lions came right back with some very quick responses. Up 2-0 in the top of the fourth, LMU got a run right back on the board after Sam Bower left the game with the bases loaded, bringing on Carlos Lomeli. He got a strikeout for the second out, but then allowed a two-run bloop double to right field from Cole Roberts to make it 2-2. Leading off the sixth inning, the Lions started using the long ball to get past the Gaels. Alec Cargin hit a line drive home run to right field to put LMU up 3-2, and then Matt Voelker added a home run in the top of the eighth inning (two-run shot) to cap off the scoring for LMU, giving them a 6-2 lead.
 
UP NEXT
The final game of the WCC portion of the schedule takes place on Sunday as the Gaels and Lions get going at 1:00 pm. Ky Bush will take the mound for Saint Mary's looking to rebound from his rough outing against San Francisco last weekend. Sunday will also serve as Senior Day for Saint Mary's, as the Gaels have a large number of seniors to honor during their pre-game ceremony at approximately 12:40 pm.