St. Mary's baseball making itself known again with NCAA regional berth
For every autograph signed Monday by a member of the NCAA regional-bound St. Mary's baseball team at University Credit Union Pavilion, a kid who probably already had one or two from, say, star first baseman Ed Madrigal or outfielder Aiden Taurek eagerly asked for another.
Neither Madrigal nor Taurek are mainstream names. But they're the closest thing to celebrities in Moraga, a practically stranger-less town where a chance encounter with someone you know is more like a certainty.
'You know everyone around here, everyone knows you,' Taurek told the Chronicle.
And because of Eric Valenzuela, everyone knows St. Mary's baseball.
In his second stint as head coach of the Gaels, Valenzuela needed only two years to put them back in the NCAA Tournament for only the second time in program history, dating back to its inclusion as the school's first sport in 1872.
The college baseball selection show Monday morning slotted St. Mary's in the Corvallis regional as a four-seed, meaning they'll face No. 8 overall seed Oregon State — a longtime baseball powerhouse — in Friday's first round of a double-elimination format. Valenzuela acknowledged to the small group that gathered at UCU Pavilion the rigors of the road ahead, along with the incredible journey they've already trekked.
An at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament was out of the question. As a three-seed, St. Mary's needed to win the West Coast Conference tournament to automatically qualify for a regional. The only other time the Gaels were crowned conference champions was in 2016, but with Valenzuela at the helm. He built St. Mary's into a perennial winning program from 2014-19, left for Long Beach State from 2020-23, and in 2024 circled back to Moraga.
After an intense stretch of conference tournament games in Las Vegas last week, including a Saturday that began with a 14-inning defeat to San Diego and ended with St. Mary's WCC championship-clinching 9-8 win in a same-day rematch, Valenzuela has the Gaels back to where they were before he left.
St. Mary's fell below .500 in every season during his brief absence, save the COVID-abbreviated 2020 campaign, before Valenzuela posted a 34-22 record by the end of his first season back in 2024. A senior-heavy roster subsequently disbanded, in addition to transfer portal losses that included catcher Bear Harrison (Texas A&M), outfielder Dalton Mashore (South Carolina) and 6-foot-11 pitcher Jason Reitz (Oregon), who was set to step into a weekend role for the Gaels if he stayed.
Despite the turnover, St. Mary's held a top-50 batting average nationally (.301) with a lineup led by Madrigal (.372) and Taurek (.336), a first-year starter.
'I'm proud of this group because six of our nine guys in our lineup from a very (good) offensive team last year are gone,' Valenzuela said. 'To be able to have a better year offensively and overall was huge.'
Madrigal was stripped of his opportunity to shine as a third-year sophomore in 2024 following a season-ending knee injury just several games in. His breakthrough this year, marked by a .372 batting average, 21 home runs and 77 RBI (tied for ninth-most in the country), earned him a microphone moment Monday. He was the only player allowed to address the pavilion, though his words stretched no further than a sentence or two.
The All-WCC first-team selection need not overstate what has transpired: St. Mary's College of California, a basketball school, is good in baseball again.
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