MORAGA, Calif. – Saint Mary's Baseball won 4-3 on Sunday afternoon to take the rubber match of a three-game series against the BYU Cougars to improve to 17-11 on the season. Both Gaels wins in the series were by a score of 4-3 and required some degree of a comeback.
 
The Gaels trailed 3-2 going into the bottom of the sixth but Chris Santiago doubled to lead off the inning and Kyle Velazquez reached on an error by the Cougars second baseman that allowed Santiago to score and tie the game.

With two outs Velazquez stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by the catcher. Dalton Mashore hit a ground ball deep into the hole at second which created a more difficult play at the keystone this time for BYU that they again could not convert and Saint Mary's went on top 4-3.
 
Conner Roberts pitched five innings allowing three runs with two walks and five strikeouts. Ryan Sanders got the win by pitching a scoreless sixth and Nathan Schneider picked up his first save of the season by pitching three scoreless innings with no walks and four punch outs.  Roberts struck out the first batter of the game but threw a wild pitch in the process. With two outs the Cougars first baseman Jacob Wilk homered to make it 2-0 BYU in the first.
 
The Gaels got one back when Gavin Napier scored on the first error of the day at second base for BYU when the Cougars attempted to throw out Christopher Campos on a Santiago fielder's choice. Saint Mary's tied it the third on a Christian Almanza double that scored Napier again.
 
SMC received a big boost by the returns of Napier and Velazquez this weekend, who had been out with injuries. Napier went 2 for 3 and was hit by a pitch to start the game along with scoring two runs. Velazquez was 2 for 4 and scored a run.
 
UP NEXT
The Geals will down to The Farm at Stanford to take on the Cardinal on Tuesday, April 5 at 6:00 p.m.