MORAGA, Calif.  –  No. 10 Washington (2-2) jumped out to a 3-0 lead before St. Mary's even stepped to the plate, but the host Gaels (3-0) rallied in the middle innings for a 6-5 win in the first game of a four-game series at Louis Guisto Field in Moraga, California.
 
The Huskies rattled St. Mary's starter Cameron Neff early as the first six batters reached base safely for the Huskies to start the game. After a lead-off walk to AJ Graffanino, Jack Meggs tripled him home for a quick 1-0 lead. No. 3 hitter Joey Morgan chased Meggs home with an infield single and John Naff followed with a single. Third baseman Willie MacIver smacked a single up the middle that scored Morgan from second and made the score 3-0 before any Huskies had been retired.
 
But Neff settled down from there, retiring the side on a strikeout and inducing an inning-ending double play.
 
The Gaels' offense got a run back in the bottom of the second and fourth innings off freshman Chris Micheles, who was making his first collegiate start, to cut the Huskies' lead to 3-2. Third baseman Charles Zaloumis was responsible for driving in both runs for St. Mary's runs, collecting a pair of two-out RBI singles.
 
Washington answered in the top of the fifth with a two-out RBI of their own. Naff singled home Graffanino from third to give the Huskies a two-run advantage, 4-2.

But, the lead was short-lived. With two outs in the bottom half of the fifth, St. Mary's catcher Jackson Thoreson belted a two-run homer well over the right-field fence off of UW freshman reliever Leo Nierenberg (0-1) to tie the game at 4-4. Zach Kirtley started another two-out rally for the Gaels with a walk to score in front of Thoreson's first long ball of the season.
 
St. Mary's took the lead for good in the sixth, tallying two more runs off of Nierenberg. Pinch-hitter Andrew Shebloski flared a single into center field that scored a pair of runs to give the Gaels a 6-4 lead.
 
The Gaels bullpen shut down the Huskies' offense until the visitors tried to mount one last rally in the ninth inning. UW had four hits in the inning, but were only able to push one run across the board.

Graffanino singled home KJ Brady to make the score 6-5, but Kevin Milam entered the game to try and extinguish the Huskies rally. Morgan reached on an infield single to load the bases, but Milam induced Naff to ground out to second base and earn himself the first save of his career.
 
Jake Valdez (1-0) pitched 3 1/3 innings of relief to pick up the win for St. Mary's.
 
Eight of nine UW starters had hits on the day and the Huskies outhit the Gaels 14-10 overall. Six different Huskies had two hits and five different batters collected RBI's.
 
The Huskies return to action Friday at 2:00 p.m. for game two of the four-game series.