RIVERSIDE, Calif. — After spending so much time in Southern California over the last week, Saint Mary's softball played their final game of the season down south. With a midweek, non-conference game against UC Riverside on the schedule, Saint Mary's had aspirations of closing out this lengthy stretch of games on a positive note. It started off strong with an early lead, but that fizzled into a 9-1 loss to UC Riverside. The Gaels see their record drop to 15-23 while UC Riverside improves to 17-26.
 
GETTING THAT FIRST ONE AGAIN
As was the case in Monday's opening game against California Baptist, Saint Mary's got on the board right out of the chute. Marissa Nishihara sent a double into left-center with one out to get things started, and her speed played a major role as she came around to score on a two-out, RBI single from Taylor Keinath, making it 1-0 Gaels.
 
STALLING OUT
After getting two hits in the first inning, Saint Mary's produced just one more hit the rest of the way, courtesy of Jenavee Amador in the top of the fourth inning. That was when the Gaels had their best chance to get back into the game, as Keinath was hit by a pitch just prior to the single with one out. Those were the only two innings in the game where Saint Mary's put a runner on base, going down in order in the second, third, and fifth innings.
 
THEY CAME IN BUNCHES
UC Riverside found that runs were coming in bunches on Tuesday, with three crooked numbers, while scoring in four of the five innings of play. Avrey Wolverton was not as sharp on Monday as she had been all season long, allowing six runs (four earned) across just 2.2 innings, seeing her earned run average jump to 1.95 after the start. Jackie Alday made an impact at the plate, with two hits, a home run (the one that chased Wolverton from the game), and four RBIs, while Kat Montuya had three RBIs.
 
UP NEXT
After spending the last four days playing games in Southern California, Saint Mary's will return to the Bay Area and take on the Cal Golden Bears on Wednesday at 3:00 pm. This will end a stretch of seven games over the span of five days, with this last one being the only game during that timeframe at home. A win over Cal would be massive for the program, as the Gaels only have two all-time wins against their Bay Area rivals.