SAN MATEO, Calif. — With all West Coast Conference games having been completed during Memorial Day weekend, the conference has announced its first All-WCC teams since the 2019 season. Saint Mary's Baseball lands left-handed starting pitcher Ky Bush on the First Team while three others take home honorable mentions, giving four Gaels postseason accolades for the 2021 season.
 
Ky Bush lost the race for WCC Pitcher of the Year, but his numbers certainly have been garnering a lot of attention in advance of the MLB First Year Player Draft. The left-hander out of Ogden, Utah was stellar in his first season in Moraga, going 7-5 with a 2.99 earned run average. The most impressive part of his game came in the strikeout department, where Bush led the West Coast Conference with 112 strikeouts, good for the fifth-most in a single season in Saint Mary's history. He limited hitters within conference play to just a .223 batting average, and continued to get better as the season went on. In his final six starts of the year, Bush went 4-2 with a 2.91 earned run average, while striking out 58 and walking just eight in 37 innings.
 
Michael Hobbs is one of two Gael relievers to take home WCC Honorable Mention honors after his fantastic senior season. The right-hander battled his way back from Tommy John surgery last season to reclaim his role as the SMC closer and was lights-out. Hobbs finished tied for third in the conference in saves with six, while featuring a miniscule 0.72 earned run average, allowing just two earned runs all year in 25 innings, with just one of those runs coming across in conference play. Hobbs struck out 28 on the season compared to just 10 walks, making a compelling case not only for All-WCC honors, but also qualifying as potential finalist for the Stopper of the Year award.
 
Liam Steigerwald helped make up the elite back-end of the Saint Mary's bullpen, and he was rewarded with All-WCC Honorable Mention honors for the first time in his career. No Gaels appeared in more games than Steigerwald this season, with 20 appearances out of the bullpen spanning 31.2 innings. Amongst WCC relievers in the top-15 in appearances, Steigerwald was one of two that had an ERA of below 2.00, with his finishing at 1.42 for the season. He walked just nine and struck out 26 on the season, and at one point featured a scoreless innings streak of 19.2 that ended on April 24. Across his two seasons at Saint Mary's, no Gael appeared in more games and sported a lower earned run average.
 
Jacob Talamante steadily improved every season in Moraga, culminating with him being named to the All-WCC Honorable Mention list in 2021. The fifth-year senior was one of the best leadoff hitters in the conference, leading the Gaels with a .299 batting average, and finishing inside the top-10 in the WCC with a .414 on-base percentage. Not only did he get on base at a fantastic clip, but he also was great on the base paths, finishing fourth in the conference stolen bases with 13, while only getting caught three times. 14 times this season Talamante produced multiple hits in a game, including a four-hit performance in a come-from-behind win for the Gaels in Gonzaga.
 
Speaking of Gonzaga, they were heavily represented at the top of the awards from the conference, with Alek Jacob taking home Pitcher of the Year honors, Brett Harris being named the Defensive Player of the Year, and Mark Machtolf winning Coach of the Year. Thomas Luevano of San Diego mashed his way to Player of the Year honors after leading the conference with 65 runs batted in, 20 more than any other player. The 2021 Co-Freshmen of the Year were Luke Keaschall of San Francisco and Andrew Pintar of BYU.