MONMOUTH, Ore – After a seventh inning rally fell short, the Saints' bats woke up with a nine run game, highlighted by a five run fifth inning, saving a split in the doubleheader to Western Oregon on Saturday.
The Saints (7-10, 2-4) managed to pull within one run of Western Oregon (13-10, 3-3) and put the tying run on third; however, were unable to deliver the clutch hit in the first game. In the second game, the Saints had no issues finding the clutch hit, scoring nine runs, second most this season, on 11 hits, including a five run fourth inning.
Western Oregon put the first runs of the game up in the third inning of the first game, scoring on a groundout and a solo home run. The Saints got on the board in the following half inning when
Nicki DeHan drove in
Sabrina Hicks on a sac fly.
Western Oregon added one run in the fifth before Hicks connected for her team-leading sixth home run of the season, a solo shot to right field. The Wolves added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth with a solo home run to left field, one that played a major impact on the game.
In the top of the seventh,
Lindsay Miller led off with a single through the left side. After an error by WOU,
Devyn Connolly advanced the runners to second and third with one out on a bunt. A wild pitched allowed L. Miller to score and pull SMU within one. Hicks popped up to short but the Saints loaded the bases on back-to-back walks with two outs for DeHan. With the tying run on third and go-ahead run on second, DeHan grounded out to the shortstop.
L. Miller pitched the first two innings, allowing no runs on three hits with two strike outs before
Lauren Maley (2-7) pitched the final four innings. Maley earned the loss after giving up four earned runs on five hits with two strikeouts.
"We played a close game and had bases-loaded in the seventh-inning with an opportunity to extend the game and were not able to get a key hit," said head coach
Jim Peterson.
In the second game, the Saints didn't score until the third inning when
Julia Lucas doubled to left field, scoring both L. Miller and
Lauren Diuco. Saint Martin's quickly opened up a commanding lead in the fourth inning, starting with a bases loaded walk to L. Miller.
Regan Byrd's fielder choice allowed the second run to come home, setting up runners on the corner for Lucas. She delivered her third, fourth, and fifth RBIs of the game with a home run to left field, her second of the season.
RBI singles by Diuco in the fifth and
Alyssa French in the seventh sealed the 9-3 victory over Western Oregon, splitting the doubleheader.
L. Miller pitched the first 3.1 innings again, allowing two runs on five hits before Maley (3-7) earned the W with 3.2 innings of relief work. Maley gave up one run on three hits with two strikeouts.
"We played really well in game two," said Peterson. "We got solid pitching, good defense, and hit very well with
Julia Lucas hitting a homerun for a big rally."
The Saints travel to Concordia tomorrow, March 17, for final doubleheader of the road trip to Oregon. First pitch is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. with live stats available on smusaints.com.
