PORTLAND, Oreg. – On Thursday, May 16th, the Saint Mary's baseball team headed north for their final regular season series against the Portland Pilots. Both teams entered the series finale dead even for the second seed in the WCC tournament and were ready to duke it out and fight for the first round bye in the postseason tournament next week in Las Vegas.
Gaels lefty ace
Derik Eaquinto would get the opening start and after stumbling in the first with an infield error, Eaquinto would settle down and retire 12 straight Pilots which included six strikeouts to keep Saint Mary's within striking distance. Portland would cash in on a 2-out single in the sixth inning to double their lead but the Gaels would respond with a pair of clutch 2-out hits of their own from
Jared Mettam and
Gavin Napier in the seventh.
Mettam would rope a 2-out double to the left center gap and move Connor "Bear" Harrison to third who singled to get on earlier in the inning. Napier would come to the dish with a chance to tie the game with a single swing. He jumped on the first pitch he saw, shooting it right back up the middle off the Pilots pitcher's glove to plate Harrison and Mettam. The Gaels would knot things up at two and allow Eaquinto to take the mound in the bottom half of the seventh and continue his solid outing.
The leadoff hitter for Portland would set the tone with a 7-pitch walk as Eaquinto's day was slowly coming to an end. The next batter would get an infield single and then a sac bunt would put runners on second and third with one out. In another 7-pitch battle, Eaquinto would plunk the Pilot hitter to load the bases, forcing head coach
Eric Valenzuela to come take the ball and end his outing.
Fellow lefty
Owen Cuffe would replace Eaquinto but the Portland hitters had a clear mindset in the inning to take pitches and extend at bats. The first hitter Cuffe saw took him eight pitches deep before drawing the walk and allowing the runner from third to come home. Cuffe would get the next batter down 0-2 but he would send a fly ball to right field deep enough to score another run and extend their lead to 4-2. Senior
Preston Howey would come in as the third Gaels pitcher of the inning and give up an RBI single to complete the three run inning for the Pilots.
Senior outfielder
Coleman Schmidt would get one back for the Gaels with a solo shot to leadoff the eighth inning, his 11th of the year. Schmidt belongs in the group of six Saint Mary's players with double digit home runs on the season, more than any other team in the WCC.
Howey would come back out for the bottom half of the eighth and after giving up back-to-back singles to start the inning, he would get a big punchout and then induce a 5-4-3 ground ball double play to end the inning and keep the Gaels in it. In the ninth,
Nathan Chong would put a charge into one out to deep right field and see it get over the wall for his 11th of the year and bring the Gaels to within a run.
Mettam would keep the rally going with a single to force a pitching change for the Pilots. Napier would lay down a sac bunt to move Mettam to second and then
Dalton Mashore would take the 1-1 pitch off the shoulder to put runners on first and second with one out. Saint Mary's would have two cracks to tie or potentially take the lead with
Coleman Schmidt and
Christian Almanza coming to the plate. Schmidt would go down on strikes and Almanza would foul off a pair of pitches after going down 1-2 but ultimately ground out to second to end the game.
The Gaels rally would fall just short as they outhit the Pilots 11-8 on the night and had chances down the stretch to tie the game or even take the lead. Eaquinto still put up and impressive stat line with 6+ innings of work and striking out seven batters. Harrison was 3-4 on the night with a run scored and Schmidt and Chong had the two solo shots for the Gaels.
LOOKING AHEAD
Saint Mary's falls to 33-18 overall and 16-6 in conference play. In an effort to secure the second seed in the WCC tournament, the Gaels will have to take the next two games of the series. Game two is slated for 3:00 PM and you can stream the game live on ESPN+.
Be sure to follow your Gaels on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to get all the latest Saint Mary's athletics updates and information.
