PROVO, Utah — The sun was out and shining down in Provo on Saturday afternoon in the series finale between Saint Mary's Softball and the BYU Cougars. After taking both games of the doubleheader yesterday, BYU closed out the series against Saint Mary's by taking the final game with a score of 10-0. The Gaels will end the 2022 season with a record of 16-31, and 4-11 in West Coast Conference play. BYU has a chance to make it to the NCAA Tournament, with their regular season record of 42-10.
 
MIRROR IMAGE
For the second day in a row, the Gaels fell into a big hole early on, needing three pitchers to make it through the first inning. BYU scored four times in the opening frame, with the first three coming against Sofia Earle, and all four runs were scored with two outs. A two-run double from Alyssa Podhurcak, following by a Marissa Chavez single plated the first three and chased Earle from the game. With Marissa Woolsey on the mound, another RBI single capped off the four-run first, but BYU added three more runs in the second, one in the third, and two in the fourth.
 
ON OFFENSE…
…the Gaels were kept quiet in the final game of the series, with just one hit recorded on Saturday afternoon. It came from Marissa Nishihara, who laid down a bunt and caught the Cougars by surprise to open up the fourth inning. The Gaels were able to put the ball in play better than they did in game two of the series, as they struck out just six times across five innings, but they only recorded two base runners: the Nishihara single, and a hit by pitch of Elena Barragan.
 
FINAL NUMBERS
With the hit in the final game of the season, Nishihara finishes as the team's leader in batting average with a mark of .309…Earle leads the team in earned run average (3.23), and virtually every other statistic on the pitching side and ends with 138 strikeouts, the fourth most in a single season in Gaels history…Ellen Ebbers launched the most home runs on the year with three, while Alex Casas drove in a team-best 16 runs this year.
 
UP NEXT
With the regular season over, Saint Mary's will now wait for the postseason awards from the West Coast Conference to be announced. There is a good chance the Gaels will see a few players represented on the team, with Sofia Earle, Marissa Nishihara, and Sasa Koria standing as some of the most productive Gaels during the season. No official timeline has been announced on when the teams will be determined, but it should come within a week.