MORAGA, Calif. – Saint Mary's baseball faced the Pacific Tigers looking to finish a series sweep in the last home series of the season. It was a day of festivities for both senior day and Mother's Day, as the Gaels put together an impressive offensive performance in the 22-7 victory.
Seniors were honored for Saint Mary's on Sunday, and one of those seniors being
Ryan Sanders who got the start for the Gaels in the series finale. Sanders gave up a solo home run in the first, but was lights out after that. Sanders finished with 5 innings pitched, allowing just the one earned run on five hits with two walks and a strikeout.
Coleman Schmidt did an excellent job defensively behind Sanders, with a diving catch into the right center gap in the first inning, helping set the tone.
The Saint Mary's offense responded to the Pacific first inning score, by scoring 14 unanswered runs spanning across five innings. Starting with a three-run rebuttal in the bottom half of the first, including an RBI double from
Christian Almanza that brought home
Dalton Mashore, and was continued with an RBI single from both
Ryan Pierce and Bear Harrison. After the early production, they led 3-1.
The Gaels' offensive onslaught continued with a six-run rally in the second inning.
Gavin Napier started the inning with a leadoff single into center field.
Tanner Griffith reached on a walk to help set the table as well. Mashore then doubled to score Napier, Almanza produced a sacrifice fly to score Griffith, and Pierce singled home Mashore. Then with two runners on base, Harrison sent one out to right center for another three runs via the home run ball making it a 9-1 game.
Saint Mary's added more runs in the third, fourth, and fifth innings. Almanza drove a two-RBI double into right center extending the lead to 11-1. In the fourth, Napier executed a perfect hit-and-run with
Jared Mettam allowing Mettam to score from first on an RBI single. Two more were tacked on in the fifth, courtesy of a Pierce two-run home run, and it was 14-1 in favor of the home squad Saint Mary's. Pacific picked up four runs over the course of the sixth and seventh innings, and inched closer at 14-5.
The Gaels seized the momentum back in the bottom of the seventh, with a seven-run tally. Pierce picked up his fifth RBI of the day with an RBI single into left field. Schmidt moved the Gaels from station to station once more, with an RBI single of his own.
Hayden Driggs would then enter the game, drawing a bases-loaded walk to score another run for Saint Mary's.
Nathan Chong was up with the bases loaded when a run scored due to a passed ball, and then Chong went deep to the opposite field making it a 21-5 lead.
Finally, Saint Mary's added one more in response to the two-run eighth by the Tigers. The Gaels scored their final run on a Driggs RBI single to add the exclamation point to the 22-7 lead and final score.
Owen Cuffe closed the door with a scoreless ninth to finish senior day. The three outs came from a 5-4-3 double play and a strikeout in Cuffe's single inning of work.
Five Gaels tallied multi-RBI days including Almanza, Pierce, Harrison, Driggs, and Chong. Pierce went 4/6 with five RBI and a HR.
Chris Esquivel smoked a double into left center as well in his day off the bench.
UP NEXT
The Saint Mary's Gaels will take on UCSB in a midweek matchup. But then the Gaels travel to Portland for the weekend series, where the winner of the series will earn the second seed in the WCC tournament.
