MORAGA, Calif. - A near four hour affair came to an end Friday night with Saint Mary's erasing a seven-run deficit, scoring 16 unanswered runs to pull off the comeback victory over San Diego State. After surrendering seven runs over the first two innings and booting the Gaels starter, Saint Mary's would slowly chip away with gritty at bats before breaking through with a four-run fifth followed by a seven-run seventh to take a 16-9 lead.
A two-run homer in the eighth from
Ryan Pierce would put the Gaels within one run of the mercy rule as the sun continued to set in the Moraga hills. A single and two walks later to load the bases,
Tanner Griffith would take the 0-0 pitch off the shoulder to plate
Eddie Madrigal and put an end to a thrilling opening game, 19-9.
Pierce belted two homers in the game to record four RBI while Griffith had a career day, going 4-for-4 from the dish and leading the team with five ribbies. Junior lefty
Garret Plata would help quiet down the San Diego State offense, finishing the game with three scoreless innings to earn his second win of the season. The Gaels 19 runs off 18 hits would go down as season highs as they improved to 6-4 on the season.
Senior ace
Derik Eaquinto made his third start of the season but the Aztec hitters really jumped on Eaquinto early, recording six hits in his eleven batters faced. A one-out double to the left center wall would plate the first run for SDSU before a two-run shot to left to jump out to a 3-0 lead. Eaquinto would come back out to start the second but three straight hits would load the bases and force head coach
Eric Valenzuela's hand as he went to the bullpen.
Justin Santiago would replace Eaquinto but the hits kept coming as the Aztecs recorded two RBI hits with the bases loaded and then a sac fly to complete the four-run inning. Despite the game quickly heading in the wrong direction, it was just the second inning and the Gaels took the approach of one at-bat at a time. A pair of runs in the second and a sac fly from
Ian Armstrong in the fourth would cut the deficit to five heading into the fifth.
5TH INNING
Saint Mary's continued to stay disciplined at the plate, working tough at-bats and trying to get base runners on anyway they could. Into the middle innings, the Gaels started to get to SDSU starter Omar Serrano as they left a combined four runners on base in the third and fourth inning to prevent a bigger offensive outburst. That outburst would finally come in the fifth inning as the Gaels climbed their way back into the game.
Saint Mary's would piece together four runs in the fifth inning, all with two outs.
Ryan Pierce would lead things off with a single to right field before finding his way to second base with two outs. Four straight hits for the Gaels would spark the madness as
Tanner Griffith, Ian Armsotrong and
Diego Castellanos would all record RBI hits in the inning. Singles from Griffith and Armstrong would make it 9-4 and then Castellanos would rip a triple down the right field line to score two more and cut the deficit to two.
As the game lengthened, Valenzuela would start to turn to his bench and he would cash in with a pinch hit double from freshman
Micah Nicholson to start the sixth inning. Two pitches later and smelling blood, Pierce would send a moon shot to left center to ignite the crowd and tie the game up at nine, erasing the previous seven-run deficit from the second inning.
7TH INNING
Things would start to unravel quite quickly for the Aztecs as the game would totally flip with a seven-run seventh inning from the Saint Mary's offense to give them a 16-9 advantage. After a leadoff walk and an error on a bunt from the SDSU pitcher,
Cody Kashimoto would flex his strength with a double right over the left fielder's head to score both runs. Kashimoto has been everything the Gaels could ask for out of the leadoff spot and more as the switch hitting second baseman is hitting .387 and leads the team with a .568 on-base percentage and eleven walks.
Junior infielder
Chris Esquivel would follow up with a pinch-hit single up the middle to score Kashimoto as Valenzuela once again cashed in on the pinch-hit opportunity. Later in the inning, the gaels would take advantage of a pair of costly errors and some sloppy wild pitches to push their lead to 14-9. The inning would be capped off with a two-run single from Griffith who batted around in the inning, scoring
Aiden Taurek and
Jared Mettam.
8TH INNING
With darkness on the move, Saint Mary's had the ability to score three more runs and end the game on a ten-run mercy rule. Castellanos would rifle the first pitch he saw into right field and then three batters later, Pierce would strike again with a line drive shot down the left field line for his second homer of the game. Pierce would record his third multi-homer game of his SMC career and put the Gaels within one run of the mercy rule victory.
Two walks and a single later, Griffith would come up to the plate and tally his fifth RBI after taking the 0-0 pitch off the shoulder to score Madrigal from third. Despite the anticlimactic ending, Saint Mary's pulled off the thrilling seven-run comeback to score 16 unanswered runs and win 19-9, most runs and hits in a game dating back to May of last season when the Gaels thumped Pacific scoring 22 runs on 18 hits.
Griffith had a career high four hits and five RBI while Pierce recorded a pair of two-run homers, finishing 3-for-6 with four ribbies.
Aiden Taurek,
Jared Mettam and
Diego Castellanos would also record multi-hit games, combining for seven hits in the afternoon. UC Irvine transfer
Elliott Joslin also helped stabilize the Gaels pitching during their offensive surge, throwing 2.1 innings allowing just one run and striking out three Aztecs before turning things over to Plata.
Aside from two walks, Plata was perfect not allowing a run or a hit in his three innings of relief. Another quiet statistic for the Gaels that helped sparked the comeback, clean defense. The Gaels made several clutch defensive plays to limit big innings for San Diego State, now ranking inside the top-30 in all of Division I in fielding percentage at 0.984.
LOOKING AHEAD
Saint Mary's improved to 6-4 on the season with their wild seven-run comeback over San Diego State, taking game one of the series 19-9. Game two of the three-game set will start at 1:05 PM tomorrow afternoon and can be streamed live on ESPN+. Tickets can be bought online at smcgaels.com/tickets.
Be sure to follow your Gaels on Facebook, Instagram, and X to get all the latest Saint Mary's athletics updates and information.
#GaelsRise
