The St. Mary’s Knights struggled to get anything going on offense against Shadow Mountain’s ace pitcher Colton McIntosh during Tuesday’s 6-1 loss to the Matadors.

Their lone success on offense came in the second inning when they took a 1-0 lead on freshman pitcher Alonso Conteras’ RBI single. The team ran the bases well, accumulating four stolen bases in the game, and also got a solid performance out of its pitching staff, which recorded a combined nine strikeouts and allowed two earned runs.

Fielding was the biggest issue for the Knights, as they had four errors that ended up being costly. In a disastrous fifth inning, the team had a throwing error and catcher error that led to three runs following back-to-back walks.

The Knights then turned to sophomore relief pitcher Jaxon Rideau, who delivered with a strikeout to end the fifth inning. He finished the day with one earned run allowed, three hits allowed and four strikeouts in 2 1/3 innings pitched.

St. Mary’s coach Joseph Ponce recognized that his infield struggled on Tuesday.

“We were careless with the baseball,” Ponce said. “That’s been our Achilles heel all season, the fourth or fifth inning the wheels fall off defensively and it’s almost insurmountable at that point.”

Ponce was “really proud” of his pitching staff’s performance, knowing that his reliever was in a tough position after he had to pull out his starter because freshmen pitchers cannot exceed 95 pitches.

Conteras was optimistic about his team’s performance. He thought the pitching staff did a great job and also believed the team was successful on offense when they were able to get on base.

“[We’ve just got to] put the ball in play,” Conteras said.

Rideau was not so optimistic about Tuesday’s loss. He said he considered the team’s performance to be “subpar.”

He believes that errors were a major issue and they need to “cut that” going forward. He added that he and his teammates are mentally and physically prepared to win Thursday’s rematch against the Matadors.

“I know what we’re capable of and I don’t think we’ve reached our full potential,” Rideau said.