MORAGA, Calif. – Saint Mary's Baseball won the series finale against LMU by a score of 14-5 to improve to 10-8 in WCC play on Sunday, as they belted a season-high five home runs.
 
The Gaels salvaged game three to avoid the sweep, and even though the team may not be seeking moral victories, it was tightly contested series against the Lions who are 14-4 in WCC play, giving SMC confidence they can hang with the top team in the conference.
 
Game one went to the Lions in the 10th inning, and game two was tied 5-5 going into the ninth. In game three the Gaels struck with authority right from the get go and never took their foot off the pedal in the convincing win.
 
In the bottom of the first a Napier double down the left field line was followed by a one-out single from Christian Almanza to put runners at the corners. A sac fly from Coleman Schmidt got the Gaels on the board for the offense's opening salvo before the flood gates opened.
 
Nathan Chong hit a double down the line just like Napier's that scored Almanza for a 2-0 lead. After a Blake McDonald walk, Dalton Mashore crushed a three-run homer to deep left field and it was 5-0 Saint Mary's after the first.
 
The Gaels kept it going in the bottom of the second with two outs, when Bill Ralston hammered the first pitch he saw way over the right field fence, and Christian Almanza would do the same on a drive to left field just two pitches later for a 7-0 SMC lead.
 
Ralston hit his second home run of the game in the bottom of the fifth inning on another towering blast to right with two outs to make it 8-0 Saint Mary's.
 
Garret Plata made the start for the Gaels and cruised into the fifth inning where he finally hit some bumps in the road. It was the longest outing of the season for the redshirt Freshman, topping the 3.1 innings of one-run ball he threw against Pacific.  
 
After getting the first out of the fifth, he walked the next two batters and was removed for freshman Jason Reitz. The tall, lanky right hander allowed a double down the line to score the two runners that belonged to Plata, and an infield single that scored another run before a groundout ended the fifth with Saint Mary's up 8-3.
 
In the bottom of the sixth Cody Kashimoto hit his first collegiate home run after a Jared Mettam walk to top off the day of long balls for the Gaels, making it a 10-3 game. Ralston would strike again on a single to center to score Napier before the inning was over to make it 11-3.
 
A two-run homer by LMU made it 11-5 in the seventh, but that's as close as the Lions would get. Hunter Hirayama got his first hit and RBI of the season when he drove in Mashore in the seventh with a single, and the Gaels rounded out the scoring in the eighth on RBI doubles by Chong and McDonald.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Plata allowed just one hit in his 4.1 innings pitched, with three walks and two strikeouts.
 
Ralston extended his on-base streak to 15 games and Almanza extended his to seven. Mashore extended his hit streak to seven games as well, and Alamanza and Chong extended theirs to six games. It was Ralston's second three-hit game of the season and 10th multi-hit game. It was Mashore's sixth multi-RBI game.
 
Saint Mary's is now 10-7 when they score in the first inning and 14-9 when they score first.
 
UP NEXT
The Gaels will visit CSU Bakersfield to take on the Roadrunners at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 25.