SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The three-game series between Saint Mary's Softball and Santa Clara came to a close under sunny skies at the Santa Clara Softball Complex. The Gaels were hoping that their momentum from game two of yesterday's doubleheader would carry over into Sunday, where the Gaels pounded out 14 hits en route to scoring eight runs. Those hits and runs were hard to come by in the series finale, unfortunately, as the Gaels fell 7-0 to Santa Clara. Saint Mary's falls to 14-25 and 2-7 in West Coast Conference play.
 
OFFENSE STALLS
It was a different offensive performance for Saint Mary's on Sunday afternoon, as the Gaels recorded just five hits in the final game of the series. Alex Casas and Sasa Koria singled in the first inning, but the Gaels were never able to get multiple hits in an inning again, and only once did they get two runners on base in the same inning. That came in the top of the seventh, when Indya Smith doubled for the only extra-base hit of the game for SMC, and Bry Waters reached on a fielding error. Additional hits for the Gaels came from Waters, who had two hits in game two, and Reyna Heredia.
 
TOO MUCH, TOO OFTEN
In a similar fashion to how the Gaels added on runs during game two of the series on Saturday, the Broncos offense was able to score in four of their six innings at the plate, making life difficult for Kayla Scott and Kailey O'Connor. A run scored in the first, but then the score held 1-0 until the bottom of the fourth, when the Broncos began to pile it on. Four-straight singles off of Scott in the fourth inning plated two SCU runs, while two Saint Mary's errors set the stage for the fifth inning, where Santa Clara scored three times and chased Scott from the game.
 
UP NEXT
The Gaels will play their final five home games of the season beginning on Wednesday afternoon at 3:00 pm against UC Santa Barbara. Saint Mary's will then host Pacific in a three-game series to close out April, before hosting Stanford the following week in their home finale of the 2022 season. Just two weeks remain in the regular season.