MORAGA, Calif. — After a hard-fought defeat at the hands of Gonzaga (7-16, 4-2 WCC) on Thursday afternoon, the Saint Mary's Gaels (15-10, 4-2 WCC) responded, taking both ends of their Saturday doubleheader with the Bulldogs, 6-3 and 14-0. Game one today mimicked Thursday's contest, with the Gaels falling in an early hole, but their comeback rally started a bit earlier, outscoring Gonzaga 6-1 after falling in an early 2-0 hole. Game two was all about the Gaels, who spotted Connor Linchey an 11-0 lead through three, and he cruised through eight shutout innings before handing the ball to Justin Santiago to slam the door shut. 

GAME ONE: SMC 6 - GON 3
Ryan Wiltse earned his first start of the season in game one for the Gaels today, and looked strong through the first two frames. He had a bit of a hiccup in the third, when the Bulldogs strung together a grouping of three hits and two sacrifice flies, but kept them to just those two runs in the third frame. 

Wiltse made it just four full, tossing 86 pitches in the outing before giving way to Ryan Sanders. After a scoreless top of the fifth delivered by Sanders, the Gaels finally hit the board in the bottom half. Connor "Bear" Harrison led off the inning with a walk and, with one out, Gavin Napier flared a single out to right field. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch, and Christian Almanza drove Harrison in on an RBI groundout to cut the deficit to one. 

The Gaels drew level in the sixth when Ryan Pierce ripped a leadoff single to left, stole second, and was doubled home by Coleman Schmidt, but Gonzaga retook the lead in the seventh, when Sanders surrendered a lead-off walk and a double, followed by a sacrifice fly, as the Bulldogs found themselves ahead again by a 3-2 tally. 

Gonzaga starting pitcher Liam Paddack walked Napier and hit Almanza to lead off the seventh before receiving the hook in favor of Michael Cunneely. Dalton Mashore laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move both into scoring position with one out before Pierce through his barrel at an 0-2 breaking ball that fell fair near the right field foul line, plating both runners and giving Saint Mary's their first lead of the day. 

Sanders walked the first batter he faced in the eighth before giving way to closer Preston Howey, who looked in command in the eighth. Two more insurance runs came across for the Gaels in the bottom half. Things got started with a Schmidt triple, followed by a Harrison sac fly with one away. With two away, Jared Mettam doubled to the right center gap, and as the ball was fumbled by Gonzaga's center fielder, he motored up to third. Napier would show an excellent piece of two out hitting, ripping a single back up the middle to plate Mettam, and Almanza would add a knock for good measure before the side was retired with the Gaels ahead 6-3. 

Preston Howey worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth to close things out for his third save, as the Gaels drew level at a game apiece in the series. Ryan Sanders picked up the win, moving to 2-0 on the campaign. After going 0-4 in game one of the series, Gavin Napier responded with a three hit contest, scoring a run and driving in a run. Coleman Schmidt logged a pair of extra base hits, boasting more knocks of the extra base variety than singles this season, while Ryan Pierce picked up his sixth multi-RBI game of the season, as he ranks second on the team with 23 driven in. 

GAME TWO: SMC 14 - GON 0
The Gaels rode the momentum from game one's victory in game two, hanging up four runs in the bottom of the first to set the tone early. Tanner Griffith led off the game with a walk, and Gavin Napier singled to the opposite field before Griffith would come around to score on a balk. With two away, Ryan Pierce would reach on an infield single, moving Napier to third, and this time, Napier would receive the free 90 on another balk, quickly making it 2-0, without a single Gael RBI. That changed when Bear Harrison got a hold of a pitch and launched it to deep left field, making it 4-0 in the blink of an eye. 

Saint Mary's added two more in the second with a bases loaded two RBI single from Brian Duroff, before exploding for five runs in the third, four coming across on a Christian Almanza grand slam. 

While the run production was fun to watch for the Gaels, Connor Linchey needed just a one run lead to protect the way he pitched. The grad student would not allow a base runner until the seventh inning, and needed just 74 pitches to get through eight innings of scoreless ball. 

The Gaels tacked on three more runs in the seventh on a Griffith RBI single, a Napier RBI groundout and a Griffith run scored on a wild pitch. 

Justin Santiago came on in the ninth to finish things out on what would prove to be a series clinching blowout victory for the Gaels. 

Freshman Tanner Griffith had the best outing of his young career, going 2-3 with four runs scored and an RBI. Christian Almanza blasted his 35th career home run today, 10 away from the program record. He also brought his career RBI total to triple digits, as his grand slam brought him to 100 for his Gaels career. Connor Linchey rebounded from one of the worst starts of his career last week against San Diego to deliver arguably the best of his career today, tossing eight innings of two hit shutout baseball en route to his second victory of 2024.

UP NEXT
The Gaels will welcome Grand Canyon to Moraga for a four game set starting Thursday, April 3. First pitch for game one is set for 3 PM. 

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