Gauna Fans Eight as Baseball Wins Season Opener

SAN ANTONIO — The St. Mary's Baseball season got the 2025 season started on the right foot with a 3-1 victory over Sul Ross State on Friday night.
 
The Rattlers scored three runs on five hits, all coming from five different players, and were aided by two Lobo errors. Sul Ross State scored one run on four hits with one StMU miscue.
 
Junior Kaleb Gauna (Hondo, Texas) had a terrific first outing, allowing one run on four hits with two walks and a career-high tying eight strikeouts, knotting the eight he collected at UAFS on Feb. 17 a year ago.
 
Freshman Christian Molinar (San Antonio) worked the next 1 2/3 innings, walking one. Senior Cameron Hodges (San Antonio) needed only one pitch to get the final out of the eighth inning, and senior Carlos Flores Jr. (San Antonio) struck out two in the ninth for his first save of the year.
 
Junior Garrett Brooks (Spring Branch, Texas), senior Easton Parrish (Lavernia, Texas) and junior Jacob King (San Antonio) each scored a run, while senior Jake Elizondo (San Antonio) and sophomore Matt Mendez (Natalia, Texas) each collected an RBI.
 
The Rattlers struck first, scoring one run in each of the first two innings. The Lobos plated one in the fourth, but StMU got that run back in the sixth for the 3-1 final.
 
The two teams return to the diamond for a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 2 p.m.