LAS VEGAS – The LMU baseball team fell to Saint Mary's 18-11 on Friday in the winners' bracket game of the West Coast Conference Tournament. They followed that up with a 14-8 loss to San Diego in the night cap at Las Vegas Ballpark.  

 

 

The Lions were off to the races against the Gaels in the first game of the day.  

 

LMU raced out to a 5-0 lead in the top of the second thanks to some timely hitting.  

 

In the first, Nate Savoie walked and moved himself into scoring position with a stolen base. Robbie Ayers came up with two outs and laced a single through the right side to plate Savoie from second and open the scoring.  

 

After a shutdown inning from the Lions' defense, LMU put up four in the top half of the second inning with back-to-back two-out homeruns. Colby Wallace led off the inning with a single and advanced to second when Joe Reid was hit by a pitch. James Bose used a sacrifice bunt to push both runners up and with two outs, Savoie blasted a homer into the left field stands for his 19th homerun of the season. Beau Ankeney immediately followed by tying the LMU single-season record with his 21st homerun, a high-arching blast into left field.  

 

The Gaels got two back in the bottom half of the second inning and one more in the third.  

 

LMU answered with three more runs in the fourth inning. Bose led off the inning with a double into the left-center field gap. Cam Hassert reached on a hit by pitch before Ankeney lifted off to right-center field for his record-breaking 22nd homerun of the year.  

 

After the Gaels got one back in the bottom of the fourth, LMU added two more in the top of the fifth inning. It was once again Nate Savoie, coming through with a single up the middle after the Lions' loaded the bases to plate a pair and push his RBI total to five.  

 

The Lions offense would fall flat after that as the Gaels erased the six-run deficit in the bottom of the fifth and added eight more runs over the next three innings.  

 

Zion Williams hit a solo shot in the ninth inning to mark the final tally and tie the WCC Tournament record with the team's tenth tournament homer. 

 

 

The Lions face the Toreros in an elimination game that began at 9:18 p.m. (PT) and lasted until the early hours of Saturday morning.  

 

This time, it was the Lions that had to fight back from an early deficit.  

 

San Diego put up the first three runs of the game with one in the second and two in the third, but LMU came storming back with a two-out rally in the bottom of the third to knot the game at three. Ankeney grounded a double just inside the third base bag before Ayers lined a double down the right field line to easily score Ayers. One batter later it was Zion Williams lining a single up the middle to score Ayers and cut the deficit to one. Still with two outs, Devan Ornelas lined his fifth triple of the season into the right-center field gap to score Williams from first and tie the game.  

 

After the Toreros regained the lead in the top of the fourth, Savoie uncorked his third homerun of the tournament and 20th of the season to give the Lions a one run lead. Once again with two outs, Hassert reached on a fielding error on a touch bouncing ball to second base. Savoie followed with a majestic homerun that went straight down the left field line to plate a pair. It was the Lions' 11th homerun of the WCC Tournament, a new record.  

 

The Lions added another run in the bottom of the sixth by way of the sacrifice fly. Ayers doubles and advanced to third on a Williams double when the Toreros' right fielder made a diving attempt on a ball into right field. Ornelas followed with a fly ball into left field that was just deep enough to score Ayers from third. 

 

The Toreros scored five in the top of the seventh to take the lead and added on in the eighth and ninth to mark the final tally. 

 

The Lions end the 2025 season with a record of 29-29, a five-win improvement from 2024. The team now holds the single-season record for hit-by-pitches, Ankeney is the reigning homerun king and this team will go into the record books with the second most homeruns in school history.