LACEY, Wash. – Four seniors,
Alyssa French,
Lauren Maley,
Sabrina Hicks, and
Lauren Diuco finished their home playing careers with two games against Central Washington. The Wildcats played spoiler and knocked off the Saints 6-1 and 5-3 in both ends.
Hicks rattled off five hits and two RBIs over the two games but the Saints' offense was never able to find the clutch hits when they needed them the most. Over the course of the two games, Saint Martin's left 18 runners on base, while only scoring four runs. Central Washington, one of the top GNAC's offenses, was only able to put up 11 runs; however, they were able to shut down most the Saints' rallies and opportunities to hold on for the wins.
In the opening game, the Wildcats jumped out to a one run lead in the second inning. Then in the fourth, Central Washington added three more runs to open up the game. They picked up two insurance runs in the fifth and sixth.
The lone run of the game for the Saints came in the seventh inning, when
Devyn Connolly singled up the middle, scoring
Regan Byrd. However, the Saints rally fell short, and the Wildcats hung only the seventh loss of the season on
Brandi Schoessler.
In the second game, Central Washington opened up with a run in each of the two first frames. The Saints did not wait until the seventh to get on the board this time, scoring one in the third on French's single to shortstop, and Hicks scoring on an error on the play.
A RBI double in the fourth and a critical two run home run in the sixth extended the lead back out to four runs for the Wildcats entering the final inning. The Saints put runners on with two outs and Hicks singled through the right side, scoring two runs and cutting the lead to only two runs. With the tying run at the plate, the Wildcats managed to escape by getting French to ground out.
Lauren Maley went the distance but earned the loss of the day. Maley went seven innings, allowing five runs, four earned, on 10 hits with two walks. Schoessler went 4.2 innings in game one, allowing five runs on eight hits, while striking out three.
Jessica O'Toole pitched the final 2.1 innings to close out the game.
The Saints travel to Central Washington for the final two games of the four game series tomorrow. Live stats and video will be available with links on smusaints.com.
