PALO ALTO, Calif. – Saint Mary's Baseball beat Stanford for the first time in 11 years on Tuesday night in an 8-1 over the Cardinal down on The Farm.
 
Stanford was picked to win the Pac 12 this year after their college world series run last season and historically successful program. The win snaps a streak of eight-straight wins by Stanford since a 3-2 Gaels win on April 26, 2011 in Moraga, Calif., which was preceded by the Gaels winning three of the previous four meetings. SMC is now 18-11 on the season.
 
Jackson Hulett started the game and threw three scoreless innings allowing just two hits with no walks and two strikeouts. Connor Linchey pitched five innings of one-run ball with just one walk to seven punch outs to get the win, and Jack Snook threw a scoreless ninth with a strikeout to close it out.
 
The Gaels had the top of the first go similarly to the bottom of the ninth in their walk-off win over BYU on Friday. Gavin Napier led off with a base hit to left center and advanced two bases on two wild pitches before scoring on a passed ball.
 
The top of the fourth started with a Chris Santiago dinger to right center and it was 2-0 Gaels after his team-leading seventh home run of the season. SMC's offense erupted in the seventh, starting with Napier driving in Javy Espinoza with a double just inside the left field line.
 
Christopher Campos put a chopper into play that the Stanford pitcher had to charge in on before making a wild throw that allowed Napier to score and make it 4-1 SMC. Christian Almanza had a base hit to keep the rally going, before a Santiago double into deep left center field bounced off the warning track for a ground-rule double to score Campos and make it 5-1.
 
Linchey got around the Cardinal leadoff man getting aboard three times with his seven strikeouts and didn't allow a run to score until the bottom of the eighth.
 
The Gaels would score four more times in the ninth when the lefthanded Almanza singled to the opposite field and opposite side of the shift to score Napier again. Saint Mary's executed a double steal with Almanza and Campos for their seventh run and a Seth Nager double down the right field line brought in Almanza for the 8-1 win.
 
Napier and Santiago each went 2 for 4 as Napier scored three times and Santiago drove in a pair. Almanza was 2 for 5 with a run scored and an RBI, Espinoza finished 2 for 3 with a run scored, and Campos scored twice on a 1 for 4 night with a walk.
 
The Gaels are now 15-2 when Napier is in the leadoff spot and 5-0 when Hulett starts a game. Santiago extended his hit streak to six games, while Dalton Mashore had a nice seven-game hit streak come to an end.
 
Saint Mary's is now 7-0 when they don't commit an error, 8-0 when holding an opponent to two runs or less this season, and 13-7 when they score first.
 
UP NEXT
Saint Mary's returns home for a three-game set Friday to Sunday against Pepperdine.