CORVALLIS, Ore. - In front of a sold out crowd at Goss Stadium of more than 4,000 people, Saint Mary's put together arguably their most complete team performance of the season to knock off top-seed and eighth ranked Oregon State for their first NCAA Tournament victory in program history. The mighty Gaels jumped out to a three-run lead in the first and then had a massive three-run homer from
Brian Duroff in the seventh that proved to be the game winner.
The storyline all season long has been the Gaels offense but tonight, they got masterful performances from seniors
Dylan Delvecchio and
Daniel Guevara Castro who combined for a season high 16 strikeouts. Delvecchio pitched into the seventh with an absolute gutsy performance, striking out a career high ten batters, allowing four runs off seven hits. Castro came in after a pair of base runners reached in the seventh and went on to strikeout six of the seven batters he faced to earn his third save of the season.
Eddie Madrigal tied the program's single-season hits record with a pair on the night to put him at 88 for the season. He tied the great Chris Koeper who had 88 hits during the 1991 season. Duroff played hero for the Gaels offensively with a two-out line drive shot in the seventh for his ninth of the season and 20th of his career. The 6-4 victory went into the record books as their first ever NCAA Regional win, now 1-2 in their two regional appearances. It is also the Gaels first win over a top-ten opponent since defeating fourth ranked Florida last season 9-4.
Saint Mary's will have the night game again on Saturday, May 31st with first pitch slated for 6:00 PM. They will take on three-seed USC in the winners bracket of the regional, their first matchup with the Trojans since 2011.
HOW IT HAPPENED…
1ST INNING
The Gaels got going early thanks to an RBI single from
Ryan Pierce that scored first baseman
Eddie Madrigal. Madrigal led the game off with an opposite field single and then got to second after a sacrifice bunt from
Cody Kashimoto. Kashimoto leads the country with 23 sac bunts on the season.
Oregon State starter Eric Segura would start to unravel a bit as he hit two batters and walked in a run to contribute to the Gaels three-run first inning. Reliever AJ Hutcheson would take over and get two big outs to leave the bases loaded but not before Saint Mary's took a three-run lead to start the game.
Hutcheson would complete five scoreless innings in relief to keep the Beavers within striking distance. On the flip side though, senior southpaw
Dylan Delvecchio would put together one his best outings of his career, as he pitched into the seventh inning and recorded a career high ten strikeouts.
Delvecchio has been the team's best pitcher over the last month of the season and has racked up four wins over his last five appearances to lead the team with a career high seven on the season. Delvecchio had terrific control of his pitches as he got ahead of batters and pitched backwards to keep the Oregon State offense off balanced all night long.
His one mistake came in the third inning as he gave up a two-run home run from Oregon State's Gavin Turley to make it a one-run ballgame. Delvecchio responded as any veteran does and went on to retire the next nine batters to get into the seventh inning and preserve the Gaels 3-2 lead.
7TH INNING
Saint Mary's knew they had to add some insurance as the eighth ranked team in the nation wouldn't be held to three runs in their regional opener. That insurance would come in the top of the seventh as
Brian Duroff punished an 0-1 fastball that leaked over the inner half of the plate for his ninth of the season, giving the Gaels a 6-3 lead. The three-run blast sent the traveling Gael fans into a frenzy as they could sense history with their first ever NCAA Tournament victory just nine outs away.
Oregon State responded as expected with two runs in the bottom half of the seventh thanks to a solo home run and a two-out triple. Delvecchio would exit the game after the RBI triple and allow
Daniel Guevara Castro to strikeout the next batter on three pitches to maintain a 6-4 lead with two innings to play.
The second year Gael was absolutely electric as he went on to retire six of the next seven batters he faced with five strikeouts. Six of his seven outs in his relief appearance came way of the K as Castro recorded his third save of the season. It seemed like the perfect storm for Saint Mary's as they came into an intense environment in Corvallis with nothing to lose and got two of the best individual pitching performances of the season.
Their 36 wins are also the most in a single-season since 2017 when they won 37 games under current head coach
Eric Valenzuela.
The Gaels are now 1-2 all-time in NCAA Tournament games after going winless in their regional trip back in 2016. The wild ride continues for the Gaels as they take on three-seed USC tomorrow night at 6:00 PM. Once determined, TV, live stats and additional media links will be made available at smcgaels.com.
LOOKING AHEAD
Saint Mary's improved to 36-24 overall after making history with their first ever NCAA Tournament win, taking down 8th ranked Oregon State 6-4. The Gaels will regroup and prepare for three-seed USC Saturday night with first pitch scheduled for 6:00 PM.
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