LOS ANGELES — Another contest between Saint Mary's (20-13, 5-3 WCC) and LMU (14-22, 2-9 WCC) went down to the wire, with the Gaels staving off a late Lions rally to win 8-7. While it was certainly a good feeling for the Gaels to end their brief two game losing streak, it felt even better for the team, as the win secured Coach Eric Valenzuela his 300th career win, and his 200th at Saint Mary's. Coach Valenzuela is the third winningest coach in program history, behind Jedd Soto (209) and Miles McAffee (215). 

After the Gaels bats were kept quiet through the latter part of last night's contest, they came to life early in this one. Gavin Napier and Dalton Mashore led off the game with a double and a single respectively, and both came around to score. Napier would come home on a Ryan Pierce one out single back up the middle, while Mashore was plated on a Coleman Schmidt sacrifice fly to deep center. 

The lead would be short lived, however, as the Lions responded with a three spot in the bottom half of the first, two of which came in on a two run home run. It seemed like it would be an early exit for starter Connor Linchey, but the senior battled back to hang up zeroes in the second, third and fourth innings to keep the Gaels in contention. 

In the third inning, the Gaels would retake the lead. This time, it was Mashore and Christian Almanza who set the table with back to back hits, and once again the two leadoff hitters in the inning would score. Mashore scored on a sacrifice fly for the second time, this time of the bat of Pierce, while Almanza scored on a Brian Duroff groundout to propel the Gaels back ahead 4-3. 

Duroff would drive in another in the fifth with an RBI triple to deep center, scoring Schmidt, but the Lions would respond with a run of their own in the fifth, the first surrendered by Linchey since the first. Ahead 5-4, Linchey would load the bases, but worked out of the jam with the lead intact through five. 

Saint Mary's got the separation they so desperately needed in the sixth. Jared Mettam worked a four pitch walk followed by another Napier knock, and with two outs, Almanza stepped to the plate. Almanza received a gift hanging breaking ball and rocketed the pitch well over 400 feet from home plate over the right centerfield wall, good for his 14th home run of the season, and the 37th of his career. 

Linchey recorded the first out of the sixth, but allowed the next two to reach before giving way to Jason Reitz. Reitz would only allow one of the inherited runners to score, unearned on an error that would've resulted in the third out. He then worked a scoreless seventh, and surrendered just one run after loading the bases in the eighth. 

Reitz issued free passes to the first two base runners he faced in the ninth (a hit batsman and a walk) before giving up an RBI single that brought the score to 8-7. He rolled a ground ball that resulted in a fielder's choice, putting the tying run at third with one away. Reitz was lifted for southpaw Dylan Delvecchio. Delvecchio has seen time as a starter and long reliever this season, but was called upon in a closing role tonight. The lefty set down the next two batters he faced to end the game with Gaels victorious by a score of 8-7. 

Connor Linchey earned the win in a gritty performance after a rocky first inning to improve to 3-3 on the season. The win was his 10th as a Gael, as he joins Ryan Wiltse as the only two active Gaels with double digit wins.  Dylan Delvecchio earned his first collegiate save, inheriting a tough situation and inducing weak contact to strand the game-tying run at third. The top three spots in the Gael lineup were a thorn in the Lions' sides all game long, going a combined 7-14 and scoring six of Saint Mary's eight runs. Christian Almanza is now just six home runs from tying the single season home run record and eight home runs away from tying the program record, both set by Troy Channing. 

Saint Mary's and LMU will play the series deciding game tomorrow with first pitch scheduled at 1 PM. 

Saint Mary's full schedule can be viewed here and season tickets can be purchased by clicking here. 

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