LAS VEGAS – The Saint Mary's offense broke through on the LMU bullpen in the eighth inning on Thursday afternoon with a pair of two-run home runs to win 4-1 over the Lions and advance to the semifinals of the WCC Tournament.
 
DEALING ACES
It was a good old-fashioned pitcher's duel on Thursday, in stark contrast to the slugfest the Gaels were in on Wednesday night. But SMC showed their ability to win in different ways by playing solid defense and being patient offensively.
 
The Gaels' Ryan Sanders was going up against the WCC Pitcher of the Year in LMU's Diego Barrera and was up to the task. Sanders went six innings allowing just one run, and walked only one batter with five strikeouts.
 
Sanders ran into a little trouble in the fifth inning after a line drive up the middle deflected off Sander's heal and rolled into left field allowing the runner to advance to second. But Gavin Napier made three dazzling plays at second, one on a liner, one on a grounder up the middle, and the last on a diving play to his left deep into the whole in shallow right to end the inning.
 
The Lions would get on the board in the sixth with a single, a wild pitch from Sanders, and a sac fly for a 1-0 lead. Bill Ralston would end the inning with a spectacular play up against the Gaels dugout railing to keep the Lions from being able to add on any more.
 
BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE
LMU made a curious decision going into the eighth inning, removing the conference's top pitcher, Diego Barrera, after just 82 pitches. They went to the equally solid Merrick Baldo, who had seven saves on the season with a 3.18 ERA coming into the game.
 
Nonetheless, he was asked to preserve a two-inning save in a one-run game. Dalton Mashore walked to start the inning, and that was immediately followed by the game's defensive star to that point, becoming the offensive star of the day.
 
Napier crushed a pitch to deep left field for a two-run shot, flipping the momentum, feel, and score of the game, making it 2-1 Saint Mary's. Christian Alamanza would draw a walk with one out, and though Nathan Chong grounded into a fielder's choice, he beat the throw to first to avoid a double play and kept the inning alive.
 
That allowed the Gaels to tack on some valuable insurance runs on the very next batter. Coleman Schmidt hit his third home run of the tournament, this one being his most mammoth blast of the week, blasting a pitch off the "V" of the Las Vegas Ballpark sign in deep left for a 4-1 lead.
 
Freshman Adam Enyart came on in relief of Sanders in the seventh to strand an LMU runner and would pitch a scoreless eighth inning as well. He got the first two outs of the ninth inning before issuing a walk. The Gaels would call on All-WCC Freshman Team member John Damozonio to get the final out, and he would do just that with a strikeout of the Lion's Benny Casillas.
 
UP NEXT:
The Gaels will take on the three-seed Santa Clara at 4:15 p.m. on Friday, May 26 at Las Vegas Ballpark. If they win they will advance to the WCC Tournament Finals. A loss would lead to them having to play their way into the finals in a second game on Friday slated for 8:30 p.m.