BERKELEY, Calif. — For the first time this season, Saint Mary's Softball played in the Bay Area, taking on the Cal Golden Bears on Wednesday afternoon. With an opportunity to play some of the better teams in the Pac-12, the first two games of this week serve as a good measuring stick for where the Gaels are at so far in 2022. Aside from the second inning, the Gaels were hanging around with Cal, but ultimately dropped the game 12-1 in five innings. Saint Mary's is now 4-7 while Cal improves to 8-3.
 
ONE OUT AWAY
Saint Mary's allowed 10 runs to score in the bottom of the second inning, which is when they fell into a 10-0 hole. However, the Gaels were just one out away from that inning ending without any runs coming into score. Kayla Scott began the inning in the circle, and after allowing a pair of leadoff singles, she retired the next two hitters and was positioned to get out of the inning. That's when Cal broke out the bats, recording nine-straight hits and putting 10-consecutive runners on base to break the game open. Kailey O'Connor came on in relief after three runs had scored, but the Golden Bears bats were just too hot to handle. Aside from that inning, Saint Mary's allowed just two runs in the game.
 
ON THE BOARD
Saint Mary's got their lone run of the game immediately after the big inning produced by Cal. Indya Smith led off the inning with a solid single to right field, a good sign for Gaels fans to see her swining the bat well. Lindsey Cabral then followed with an infield single after sending a ball to the shortstop, and the Gaels then had the wheels turning. A bounce out moved both runners up, and Marissa Nishihara drove in Smith from third with a line drive single to right field. Though Nishihara was thrown out at second trying to advance it to a double, it did produce her third RBI of the season and her team-leading 12^th hit.
 
UP NEXT
Saint Mary's will stay in the Pac-12 for one more day as they take on (RV) Stanford on Thursday afternoon on the Peninsula. Saint Mary's upset the Cardinal last season after a thrilling, come-from-behind win in which they used a 10-run inning of their own in the top of the seventh to beat Stanford 12-8. It marked the Gaels 20^th win all-time against Stanford. First pitch is at 6:00 pm on the Pac-12 Network.