MORAGA, Calif. - Saint Mary's Baseball put up 15 hits for a third-straight game, including two more home runs for freshman catcher Connor "Bear" Harrison in the Gaels 11-6 win over Utah Valley Friday afternoon.

SMC wasted no time starting the hit parade, as Christian Almanza kick started the action with a colossal home run to right field, propelling the Gaels to an early 1-0 lead.

Saint Mary's continued their offensive onslaught in the second, with three separate scoring rallies. Brian Duroff battled back to from being down in the count to draw a full-count walk, setting the stage for Harrison. The reigning WCC Freshman of the Week delivered a towering homer over the left-field wall for his third homer of the season, and it was 3-0 SMC.

That was immediately followed by Dalton Mashore's triple to right field and an RBI ground out by Jared Mettem to make it 4-0. Gavin Napier and Christian Almanza finished out the big second inning with back-to-back doubles, resulting in a 5-0 lead for the Gaels.

Derick Eaquinto put together another solid performance, conceding only three hits and one run while striking out six batters in five innings of work. The Wolverines did a good job of working counts to get Eaquinto up to 91 pitches through those five innings, but Orem, Utah native still only walked one batter on the afternoon.

In the fifth inning Nathan Chong reached on a throwing error at third, and Harrison would make the Wolverines pay with second two-run shot of the game, extending the Gaels' lead to 7-1.

Napier doubled again in the sixth, and was driven in by an Almanza single, further bolstering the Gaels' lead to 8-1. SMC scored three more runs in the bottom of the sixth, Nathan Chong's single and Ryan Pierce's double contribute to a scoring sequence, and Brian Duroff's sac fly to left scoring Chong made it 10-1 Gaels.

Dalton Mashore's would triple out to right field again in the seventh, narrowly missing a home run. Head Coach Eric Valenzuela asked the umps to confer on it, and the veteran coach's eyes may have been correct, as Mashore's fly ball definitely hit the top of the wall. The umpires however felt it hit the yellow line and came back rather than caromed off the netting which would have been a home run, leading them to stick with the triple. Jared Mettam lifted a ball out to right that was misplayed, and the error allowed Mashore to score and make it 11-1.

Saint Mary's would let freshman Justin Santiago make his collegiate debut after three shut-out innings by Ryan Sanders. But the freshman would struggle with control, walking two of the first three batters he faced, and hitting another batter with the bases loaded.

SMC would call on senior Ryan Wilste to step in and end the threat, getting two ground outs and a strike out along with allowing a single to secure an 11-6 victory.  

UP NEXT:
Games two and three of the series with take place Saturday afternoon in Moraga, with game one slated for an 11:05 a.m. first pitch, and game two for approximately 2:00 p.m.