Posted: May 12, 2019
MORAGA, Calif. – Saint Mary's scored all nine of its runs in the first four frames and starter Carlos Lomeli allowed two runs in six innings to help the Gaels to a 9-4 win over Santa Clara baseball on Sunday in the West Coast Conference finale.
Gaels starter Carlos Lomeli (8-2) gave up two runs on five hits and one walk to pick up the win for Saint Mary's (30-19, 15-9 West Coast Conference).
Jake MacNichols supplied the offense for Santa Clara (11-38, 4-20 WCC) blasting two 2-run home runs, in the fourth inning off Lomeli and in the final inning off reliever Michael Hobbs. MacNichols finished the day going 2-for-4 with two runs and four RBIs and has now belted 15 homers in the season to move up to sixth all-time on the Broncos single season home run list.
The Gaels (30-19, 15-9 WCC) plated three runs in the opening frame against Broncos starter Brandon Buckley. Ryan Novis hit a two-RBI triple and later scored on a wild pitch to put Saint Mary's up 3-0.
Saint Mary's added another run in the second on Conor Thane's sacrifice fly to make it 4-0 and broke the game open with a four-run third inning.
MacNichols' first home run cut the Gales lead to 8-2 but SMC answered with another run in the home half of the fourth on Kevin Milam's RBI double.
After a rough start, the Broncos bullpen settled down and tossed four scoreless innings to finish the game.
Buckley (1-2) was saddled with the loss giving up four hits, six runs though only three were earned over 2 1/3 innings of work.
Along with MacNichols, Jason Dicochea had a multi-hit game going 2-for-4. Gaels had three hitters with multiple hits including Joe Vranesh (2-for-3, 2 R), Jack Murphy (2-for-4) and JC Santini (2-for-4, R, RBI).
NOTES
With 15 home runs on the season, MacNichols now sits sixth all-time on the Broncos singles season home run list surpassing Kevin Dunton (1985) and Eric Newton (2006) who each hit 14 homers.
NEXT UP
Santa Clara concludes its 2019 season hosting BYU with a three game series starting Thursday at 6 p.m.