BSB | Dominance from Damozonio as Gaels Beat Broncos 8-1 in Series Opener

Friday, April 10

Santa Clara, CA

6:00 PM

Saint Mary's College of California

19-14, 6-4

Santa Clara

13-19, 3-7

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Saint Mary's	0	0	3	1	1	3	0	0	0	8	10	0
Santa Clara	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	10	0

Photo by: SMC Athletics / Emily Smith

BSB | Dominance from Damozonio as Gaels Beat Broncos 8-1 in Series Opener

4/10/2026 10:52:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The Saint Mary's baseball team rode the momentum of arguably the best starting pitcher in the West Coast Conference Friday night, as senior right hander John Damozonio completed seven innings for the second consecutive outing en route to the dominant 8-1 victory against Santa Clara (13-19, 3-7).

The Gaels scored eight runs off ten hits for a very efficient night at the plate. Four different players had multiple hits in the game, including Diego Castellanos and Jacob Johnson, who also combined for four RBI. Saint Mary's (19-14, 6-4) put up three runs in the third and three runs in the sixth to help Damozonio cruise to his WCC leading sixth win of the season. The San Jose native tied his career high yet again with seven innings pitched, allowing just one run off of eight hits while striking out a game-high eight batters.

Saint Mary's flexed its offensive depth as hitters 6-9 combined for seven hits on the night, including two extra-base hits from senior shortstop Jared Mettam. The Gaels continue to pace the WCC in nearly every major offensive category and, combined with a stellar pitching performance from Damozonio and company, they put together a dominant performance in game one of the weekend series Friday night.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Senior right hander John Damozonio made his ninth start of the season Friday night and has simply been one of the best starters in the WCC this season. He proved that again in game one against Santa Clara, going for seven innings of one-run baseball en route to his conference leading sixth win of the season. Damozonio allowed three singles over his first three innings of work but no damage as he recorded three strikeouts over those innings.

The offense gave him some run support with a three-run third inning that got started with a leadoff double from Jared Mettam. Following Mettam's double and an Ian Josephson walk, the Gaels were in business with two on and no out. After a sacrifice bunt from Cody Kashimoto put the runners on second and third, Tanner Griffith would hit a high chopper to first. Mettam took off on contact and the Broncos first baseman would throw home in effort to deny the run. Mettam avoided the tag at home with an acrobatic slide to touch the back of the plate and score the Gaels' first run. Diego Castellanos would rifle a single to left in the next at-bat to plate Josephson and then Jacob Johnson scored Griffith on a sac fly to complete the three-run frame.

Santa Clara would show some life in the fourth with three straight singles to start the inning and score their first run of the ballgame. Despite the trouble, Damozonio remained dialed and retired the next three batters, including an inning-ending strikeout to limit the damage to just one run.

Saint Mary's held a 5-1 lead going into the sixth and would put the nail in the coffin with another three-spot in the sixth inning to give them an 8-1 lead. Once again the first two runners reached base and then sophomore catcher Ian Armstrong would eventually come home to score on a wild pitch for the inning's first run. Later in the frame, the Gaels got RBI singles from Josephson and then Castellanos with two outs to push the lead to seven and force another pitching change before the end of the inning. Sophomore southpaw Talin Gardini pitched the final two frames for the Gaels, not allowing a run while striking out two batters to seal the series opening win. Gardini has allowed two runs or fewer in nine of his ten outings this season as one of the team's trustiest relievers.

GAME NOTES

For the second consecutive outing, John Damozonio completed seven innings to tie his career high
Damozonio now leads the WCC outright with six wins over his nine starts
Damozonio recorded a game-high eight strikeouts and allowed just one run; He has allowed three runs or fewer in eight of his nine starts this season
Four different players recorded two hits for the Gaels
Castellanos and Johnson each had two RBI; Johnson leads the team with 36 RBI this season
Castellanos extended his current hit streak to ten games for the longest active streak on the team
Tanner Griffith was hitless out of the leadoff spot but drew two walks, scored two runs and had an RBI
Griffith leads the WCC with a .493 on-base percentage this season
Jared Mettam went 2-for-4 out of the 7-spot in the batting order with both hits coming as doubles; he now has five doubles on the season
Following his cycle earlier in the week against Bakersfied, Ian Josephson earned the start yet again on Friday and went 1-for-3 with two runs scored and an RBI
As a team, the Gaels hit .368 Friday night with runners on and .357 with runners in scoring position; Santa Clara was a combined 4-for-24 in those categories
This is the 24th time this season the Gaels have recorded 10+ hits
This is the fifth game this season the Gaels have allowed one run or fewer
SMC pitching had ten strikeouts on the night for their ninth game this season with 10+ strikeouts
Saint Mary's was errorless in the field on Friday and improved to 10-4 this season when not committing an error

LOOKING AHEAD

Saint Mary's and Santa Clara will meet again at Stephen Schott Stadium on Saturday with first pitch scheduled for 1:00 p.m. Live scoring can be found at smcgaels.com and you can stream the game live on ESPN+.

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