NAMPA, Idaho – Saint Martin's University Baseball dropped the four game series against Northwest Nazarene in a slugfest, 11-8 and 13-5, on Saturday.

Game One

The Saints (7-13, 4-8 GNAC) struck first after back-to-back double from Austin Feist and Adam Eskil scored two runs in the first inning. With a runner on second and two outs in the third, Brandon Witherspoon found grass in centerfield for a RBI single and a 3-0 lead.

Northwest Nazarene (10-10, 8-4), with one swing of the bat, tied the game on a three-run home run to left field in the bottom half of the third.

Runners on first and second for the Saints in the fifth, Feist once again doubled, driving in his second and third runners of the game.  Next batter, Eskil, cleared the bases with a two-run home run to left field. After a groundout, Shaan Kothari and Ryan Colvin doubled to extend the Saints' lead to their largest of the game 8-3.

The Crusaders began chipping away at the lead with a run in the fifth and a run in the sixth before a two-run home run capped off the three run sixth inning and score was cut to 8-7.

Down to their final two outs, NNU forced extra innings after a game-tying solo shot to right field locked the game at 8-8. Northwest Nazarene claimed the victory in the 11th inning after a walk-off three-run home run to left field.

Tanner Inouye received the start for the Saints, going 5.1 innings, giving up six runs on nine hits with one walk and three strike outs. Zach Stevenson faced one batter and gave up one hit and one run before Benjamin Wadowski went 1.2 shutout innings. Luke Hare and Eskil combined for the next three innings until Trevor Young (0-1) picked up his first loss on the season.

Game Two

Northwest Nazarene exploded for eight early runs within the first three innings, a deficit that the Saints would never overcome.  Four RBI singles, a two RBI double and wild pitch accounted for all eight runs in the opening innings.

SMU had an opportunity in the fourth inning to do damage against the Crusaders with the bases loaded, but a walk resulted in the only run of the inning.

With runners on the corners in the sixth inning, a double to right center scored two runs and cut NNU's lead to 8-3. The next batter, Feist, also doubled to drive in the fourth run before a single by Witherspoon plated Feist and Saints trailed 8-5 going into the bottom of the sixth.

NNU put the game out of reach and sealed the four-game series victory with a five run sixth inning, highlighted by four home runs to cap-off their 10 home run performance in the series.

Mickey Walker (1-3) went five innings in the start, giving up eight runs on 12 hits, while walking one and striking out seven. Jacob Phipps, Patrick Hoeper and Stevenson each retired one batter in the sixth inning.

Up Next: The Saints return home to Lacey, Washington for back-to-back doubleheaders against Western Oregon University, starting at 1:00 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.