MORAGA, Calif. – A trend continued for Saint Mary's Baseball on Saturday as they again split a double header, this time with the Santa Clara Broncos on the opening weekend of WCC play.
 
The split gave Santa Clara the series after squeaking out an 11-inning win in the opener on Friday. With the 12-0 win in game one and a 11-0 loss in game two on Saturday, the pattern continued of the Gaels winning the first game convincingly and losing the second by a solid margin as well.
 
GAME ONE
The Gaels got the scoring started when Blake McDonald beat the shift with a single through the right side and Seth Nager raked a ball out of the reach of the diving first baseman's attempt to his right.
 
Saint Mary's would add to their 1-0 lead in the fifth when Gavin Napier drew a two-out walk and Christian Almanza crushed a home run over the scoreboard in center field to make it 3-0.
 
Connor Linchey started for SMC and threw five scoreless innings while allowing just one hit and two walks to seven strikeouts. Ryan Sanders and John Damozonio each threw two innings of shutout baseball while the Gaels offense kept pouring it on.
 
They would tack on in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings, starting with putting runners in motion in the sixth that led to Santa Clara errors for two more runs. Coleman Schmidt and Dalton Mashore scored after putting pressure on the Broncos defense, when Schmidt stole second and advanced to third on an error. Mashore drove him in with a line drive up the middle, before he advanced two bases on an errant pickoff attempt and scored on a sac fly from McDonald.
 
The Gaels loaded the bases in the eighth and got sac flies from McDonald and Napier with a walk by Seth Nager sandwiched in between to make it 9-0. The scoring would be capped off by Almanza's second home run (5) of the day, this time out to left center to put a cherry on the 12-0 win.
 
GAME TWO
Santa Clara flipped the script in game two as Ryan Wiltse continued to by snake bitten with a first inning that broke the opponent's way. After allowing a solid double down the line, he walked a pair of Broncos and hit a batter to bring in a run.
 
But a slow dribbler up the third base line was followed by a tapper in front of the plate that led two runs scoring and a 3-0 Santa Clara lead. The Gaels would catch a Bronco runner wandering too far past second base though to end the threat.
 
The Broncos would score a run in the second, third, and fourth innings before breaking out in the eighth. They'd string together three singles and a wild pitch for a five-running inning to finish off the 11-0 win. Saint Mary's would use seven pitchers in game two, with Adam Enyart going the longest with three innings of one-run ball.
 
UP NEXT
Saint Mary's will play at Cal this Tuesday at 6:00 p.m.