SB | Gaels Blank Toreros for Third Consecutive Game, Earn Series Sweep with 11-0 Victory

Sunday, April 26

San Diego, CA

12:00 PM

Saint Mary's College of California

36-12, 0

San Diego

17-28, 0

Team	1	2	3	4	5	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Saint Mary's	4	0	0	2	5	11	11	0
San Diego	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	2

Alex Cutonilli: 2-for-3 2B 2 R 2 RBI

Photo by: Ryan Barnett / SMC Athletics

SB | Gaels Blank Toreros for Third Consecutive Game, Earn Series Sweep with 11-0 Victory

4/26/2026 4:59:00 PM | Softball

Box Score Highlights

SAN DIEGO — What a week for the Saint Mary's softball team! The Gaels completed their third consecutive shutout of the San Diego Toreros, 11-0 to earn their third consecutive sweep of the Toreros, dating back to 2024. The three straight shutouts are also a first for the Gaels since the 2024 campaign, when they opened the season with a shutout of UC Davis, which came on the back of two shutout victories over BYU to end the 2023 season.

Ella Thurman was the complete game shutout pitcher du jour on Sunday at the Reggie Smith Softball Complex, going the five full innings in the run rule victory, allowing three hits and fanning four without a walk. At the plate, Alex Cutonilli and Hannah Ferguson provided quite a bit of fire power from the two and three spots, each logging a pair of hits, a double and two RBI. Victoria Castillo went unretired in the contest, going 2-for-2 with a walk, while Camille Lara scored three times and Taylor Lane drove in three runs with one swing of the bat, a three run blast over the left field fence.

HOW IT HAPPENED
For the sixth time in as many games, the Gaels (36-12, 11-1 WCC) got on the scoreboard in the first inning, this time putting a four spot on the board before the Toreros (17-28, 3-9 WCC) could even come up to bat. Camille Lara led off the game with a walk, stole second, and moved up to third on a Hannah Ferguson infield single. After Ferguson stole second for her program-record tying 60th swiped bag, Braxton Brown singled Lara home and put runners on the corners with one away. Taylor Lane then smashed a 1-2 pitch over the left field fence, giving the Gaels an early 4-0 lead.

The Torero starter, Kaitlyn Bartlow, would go just one inning full, and reliever Alex Riggs kept the Gaels off the scoreboard in the second and third, but in the fourth, Lara once again led off with a walk, Alex Cutonilli singled, and a hard hit ball by Brown was thrown home, but not in time to catch the speedy Lara. With two outs, Lauren Tran earned a pinch hit opportunity, and bashed a single to right, scoring Cutonilli, bringing the score to 6-0.

The fifth inning would prove to be the biggest for the Gaels, as they would load the bases with one out with Cutonilli coming up to the plate. Alex promptly banged a ground-rules double over the left center field fence on the hop, scoring two, and then came in to score on a Ferguson two rbi two-bagger down the left field line. For good measure, Ferguson would swipe third, giving her the program record outright with her 61st career stolen base, then came in on an errant throw to third on that stolen base, making it 11-0.

Ella Thurman was the beneficiary of the run support today, but proved she didn't truly need it, going all five innings in the shutout victory. Thurman surrendered a leadoff single before retiring the next nine straight Toreros. In the fourth, Thurman's streak of retired batters came to an end with a leadoff double for San Diego. That, paired with a one out infield single, put runners at the corners with just one out. Thurman remained cool, calm and collected, and was able to get some help from Andrea De La Rosa behind the dish, who erased her first collegiate attempted base stealer, to get out of the inning unscathed. She then worked a 10 pitch 1-2-3 bottom of the fifth to see away the complete game shutout victory, the first of her career.

GAME NOTES

Saint Mary's improves to 11-1 in West Coast Conference play, and have swept three of their first four conference series. They've won all four conference series.
All three of this week's contests against San Diego went down as shutout victories. The last time the Gaels had three consecutive shutouts spanned the end of the 2023 season and the start of the 2024 campaign, blanking BYU twice (May 13, 2023) and UC Davis (Feb. 7, 2024).
The win marked the Gaels seventh in a row this year, and their 10th consecutive victory over the Toreros.
Hannah Ferguson swiped two bags today, tying and breaking the program stolen base record. Ferguson now stands alone with 61 career stolen bags.
The stolen bases today also gave Ferguson 20 for the season, making her the last Gael since herself (23) and Marissa Montelongo (33) in 2024 to steal 20 bags in a single season.
Ella Thurman picked up her first collegiate complete game shutout in the circle. She also did not walk a batter, making it back-to-back contests, and six out of her last seven without issuing a free pass.
Alex Cutonilli logged her 30th collegiate double, making her the first Gael since Hailey Sparacino (2015-18) to hit 30 two-baggers.
Taylor Lane jumped the yard for her third homer of the season, and her second in as many weeks.
Now with two weeks to go in conference play, the Gaels are three games ahead of second place LMU and four games ahead of third place Santa Clara, the final two foes they will face this year.

Saint Mary's will host LMU next week in its final home series of the year. That series will begin on Friday, May 1 with a 3 p.m. scheduled first pitch from Cottrell Field.

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