SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – On Tuesday, May 14th, the Saint Mary's baseball team headed south for a makeup non-conference contest against the 24th ranked Gauchos of UC Santa Barbara. This would act as their final non-conference game of the season and a quality test before taking on Portland in the WCC regular season finale this weekend.
The Gaels jumped out to an early 1-0 lead off the bat of
Jared Mettam who would single home Connor "Bear" Harrison after his leadoff double. The two hits would be the lone ones of the game for Harrison and Mettam.
Freshman right hander
Justin Santiago would get the opener like start for the Gaels and get into the third inning before departing for
Dylan Delvecchio. Santiago had a clean first frame but gave up two runs in the second and third. After a leadoff double, Delvecchio would would come in but surrender a 2-run homer to give the Gauchos a 3-2 lead after three innings.
Delvecchio would settle in nicely though and retire five of the next six batters he would face including a strikeout to start the fifth inning. Senior reliever
Preston Howey would finish the fifth inning with a strikeout of his own and catch the pop-up back to the mound to keep the deficit at just a run for the Gaels.
Entering the sixth, Santa Barbara would leadoff with back-to-back hits to put runners on the corners. Howey would pitch to contact and induce the 4-6-3 double play, allowing the run to score from third but clearing the bases for the Gaels. He would finish the inning but the Gauchos extended their lead to 4-2 with three innings to play.
Connor Linchey and
Owen Cuffe would piece together the seventh and eighth with scoreless frames, allowing just one hit. Cuffe would give up a pair of 2-out walks to load the bases but get a huge punch out for his second of the inning to end the threat and give the Gaels one last shot heading into the top half of the ninth.
The middle of the Gaels batting order would get things going to start the inning after singles from
Ryan Pierce and Bryan Duroff would put runners on first and second with no outs. After a fly ball out to third,
Nathan Chong would step to the plate and put together a terrific 8-pitch at bat before rifling a ball into left field.
Diego Castellanos would pinch run for Pierce after his single and hustle around to score to cut the deficit to just one run.
The late game magic would run out though as the Santa Barbara closer would get Mettam to fly out and then
Gavin Napier on a clutch strikeout to end the game and seal the 4-3 victory for the Gauchos. Saint Mary's showed great depth in their pitching staff as they threw five arms on the night and allowed just six hits. Pierce and Chong led the way with two hits and two RBI's each while Mettam had the other RBI single back in the second inning.
LOOKING AHEAD
The Gaels fall to 33-17 overall after their 4-3 defeat to 24th ranked UC Santa Barbara. They will return home and rest up before heading north to take on Portland in the final conference series of the season. The three game spread might be the biggest of the year as the Pilots and Gaels enter the weekend dead even for the second seed at 16-5. The top two seeds in the WCC tournament will earn first round byes as both teams look to avoid the elimination games on Wednesday.
Game one of the series is slated for Thursday, May 16th at 6:00 PM. You can stream the game live on ESPN+ and tickets can be bought online at smcgaels.com. Be sure to follow your Gaels on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to get all the latest Saint Mary's athletics updates and information.
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