STOCKTON, Calif. — Saint Mary's softball is back in West Coast Conference play this weekend as they take on Pacific in a three-game series in Stockton. A return to play in Northern California could be just what the Gaels need to break a 1-6 skid, where five of those losses came in Southern California. The series begins on Saturday with a doubleheader at noon.
 
THE DETAILS
Saint Mary's Gaels (15-24, 5-4) at Pacific Tigers (9-25, 0-9)
Saturday – Sunday, April 29-30 at 12:00 pm both days
Bill Simoni Field – Stockton, Calif.
Stats and Streaming Info
 
LAST TIME OUT
Saint Mary's finished off a brutal stretch of playing seven games in five days, which ended on Wednesday with a home game against Cal. The run of games began over the weekend in Los Angeles against LMU, where the Gaels battled the first-place Lions. All three games followed a similar path, and unfortunately for the Gaels, they wound up losing all three. They then played a doubleheader at California Baptist the next day, where they picked up a 6-2 win in the first game of the double-dip. Their time down south ended with a loss at UC Riverside before returning home to face Cal, which resulted in a 1-0 loss.
 
WOOLSEY WOWS
To say that Wednesday's performance was one of the best in the career of Marissa Woolsey would not be an exaggeration. She was spectacular against a great Golden Bears lineup, and was plenty good enough to win the game. In her first start since the season opener, Woolsey went the distance, tossing all seven innings without allowing an earned run. Yes, she did allow eight hits and walked five while also hitting two batters, but she successfully pitched around traffic all game long. This was highlighted in the third and fourth innings, where she stranded the bases loaded in consecutive innings. In the third, she got a fielder's choice and a fly out to get out of a jam, and in the fourth, she used her only strikeout of the game to get the second out in a bases-loaded situation.
 
ABOUT PACIFIC
It's been a rough go of it for the Tigers in 2023, going winless through the first nine conference games and owning just nine wins on the year. Their offense has struggled like the Gaels offense, owning just a .230 team batting average, but it's been worse in conference play, hitting just .187 in nine WCC games. To make matters worse, they have only scored 10 runs in those games, never scoring more than two runs against a conference foe. Pitching has not been terrible, with Vanessa Strong leading the charge in the circle with a 3.11 ERA over a team-best 65.1 innings. They don't have a single pitcher with a winning record, and haven't had a winning record as a team since the shortened 2020 season.