PORTLAND, Ore. - The Saint Martin's softball suffered a sweep by the hands of Concordia University in the final weekend of the 2017 regular season, to finish third in the GNAC and a berth to the conference tournament.

Game One

Kim Nelson engaged in a pitcher's duel with Mattie Boucher from Concordia, each holding the other's offense to nothing through four innings. The 0-0 tie was broke in the fifth inning when a fielding error by the Saints (25-17, 17-11 GNAC) allowed two runners to score, before the third run of the inning came home on a single. 

The Cavaliers (19-28, 11-17) scored their only earned run of the game in the sixth on a RBI single from the left fielder Besuyen to secure the 4-0 victory.

Nelson (12-9) picked up the loss despite pitching six innings, with four runs, one earned on seven hits and one strike out.

Game Two

The Saints pounced on the Crusaders in the second inning with a two RBI double from Alyssa Slate, scoring Paige Miller and Tessani Dixon. Saint Martin's picked up one more run in the inning after Lindsay Miller singled right field, bringing home Slate for a 3-0 lead.

The Cavaliers responded with two runs in the fourth inning on a two run home run from the shortstop Bussey. The catcher Peterson came through in the clutch in the bottom of the sixth inning, driving home Merritt with a single up the middle to tie the game at 3-3. 

With runners on second and third and one out in the bottom of the seventh, Bussey provided the game-winning single, scoring Luebbert and clinching the 4-3 victory in the backend of a doubleheader.

Lauren Maley (8-3) had her six game winning streak snapped after throwing 6.1 innings, with four runs, three earned on eight hits and one strike out.

"It was a rough day at the ballpark, with quite a few sick kids and we got to give a lot of players an opportunity to get some time on the field," said head coach Rick Noren. "We hope to get healthy and come out with energy to play well next week."

Up Next: The Saints finished the season in third place of the GNAC and will advance to 2017 GNAC Tournament. The Saints will play two seed Western Washington on Thursday May 4 at noon. Saint Martin's will host the four team tournament on their home field, including the Central Washington-Western Oregon match up at 2:30 p.m.