Kroner's Corner: Baseball Season Preview

2/11/2026 2:46:00 PM | Baseball

By: Steve Kroner

MORAGA, Calif. - One of the axioms in most team sports is that it's tough to win a championship but it's tougher to defend one. Head coach Eric Valenzuela and the Saint Mary's baseball team get the privilege of testing that axiom this season.

The Gaels became WCC champs last year by winning four of five games in the conference tournament. That stretch was capped by a dramatic – to put it mildly – final day in which SMC lost to top-seed San Diego 16-13 in 14 innings before responding to hold off the Toreros 9-8, giving Saint Mary's its second-ever berth in a regional.

The Gaels picked up their first-ever postseason win, a 6-4 decision over host Oregon State, before bowing out of the regional. SMC went 36-26 in 2025, and Valenzuela believes that success has energized his program.

"There was just a different feeling coming into this fall with these older guys and with the new guys coming in, seeing what we had accomplished last year," Valenzuela said during the annual Zoom news conference with Bay Area baseball head coaches last week. "It feels really good going into this season."

The Gaels lose their top three home run hitters from 2025, Eddie Madrigal (21), Ryan Pierce (14) and Aiden Taurek (11), but they return their four starting up-the-middle players.

Sophomore catcher Ian Armstrong (.345 last season), senior second baseman Cody Kashimoto (.281, nation-leading 23 sacrifice bunts), senior shortstop Jared Mettam (.295) and junior center fielder Tanner Griffith (.247, 28 HBPs -- ouch) give Valenzuela and his staff a solid core.

Valenzuela called Kashimoto the "anchor to our club. He's our gel."

Kashimoto likes whatever pressure might come from the Gaels being the defending conference champs.

"Playing with a target on our back is special," Kashimoto said, "but I think that one thing our guys understand is – for the many of us who have been there – is just playing every game the same. Going out there and doing our thing."

In the WCC coaches' preseason poll, the Gaels were picked to finish third this season, behind San Diego and Gonzaga. Four SMC players were named to the preseason All-WCC team: Armstrong, Mettam, junior right fielder Diego Castellanos (.311, 8 HRs in 2025) and sophomore right-hander Lukas Sarantos (3-1, 5.32 ERA).

Valenzuela is high on two left-handers who've transferred to Moraga, junior Cam Staton and grad student Jake Hilton. Staton went 7-2 with a 3.32 ERA and 113 strikeouts in 95 innings for Sierra College last season. Hilton, from Pomona-Pitzer, missed most of last season with an injury, but he went 9-3 with a 2.94 ERA in 2024.

Entering the third season of his second stint as the Gaels' head coach, Valenzuela says his goal is to build the program around developing players who enter SMC as freshmen. He then can sprinkle in select transfers to fill out the roster.

"We want to build this thing from the ground up," Valenzuela said. "We're not in a place where we're just going to bring in high-impact, Division I transfer guys from the portal."

SMC head coach Randy Bennett has built his renowned men's basketball program with a similar philosophy – and his teams often outperform much higher-profile schools.

"We may have a lack of resources or whatever it may be," Valenzuela said. "You can make every excuse why – Hey, we don't have this and that. How are we supposed to be successful? – well, we have the blueprint right here with what basketball has done.
"So, no excuse. We can make a winner with what we have."

The Gaels were winners last season and because of that, they likely won't be overlooked by many opponents in 2026. Valenzuela is fine with that.

"We want everybody's best and we want to play our best," Valenzuela said. "We still have that chip on our shoulder, for sure."

Notes: The Gaels open the season with a three-game series against visiting Creighton, with one game Friday and a doubleheader Saturday. Last year, SMC took one of three against the Bluejays in Omaha. … Mark Kingston will be making his debut as Creighton's head coach Friday. … Lights have been added to Br. Ronald Gallagher Stadium, but when they'll debut has yet to be determined.

Steve Kroner has covered Bay Area sports for more than four decades, mainly at KPIX-TV (Channel 5) and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is in his second season working as an analyst alongside Brian Brownfield on SMC men's basketball telecasts on ESPN+.

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