OAKLAND, Calif. – Lights out pitching from Justice Yamashita, and Finnley Butler led the Saints to a series victory over Academy of Art, 7-1, on Sunday afternoon.
 
For the third straight game, the Saints (5-3) got the board in the top of the first inning. Ryne Oshiro drove in Isaac Hegamin with a sac fly to put SMU up 1-0.
 
In the top of the second, Cody Chavis connected on his first career home run, this a two run shot to left field to widen the lead to 3-0. The Saints proceeded to added two more runs in the fifth, the first coming on an error, and the second on a Jake Leonard RBI single to right.
 
Academy of Art (4-8) finally managed to find some success against Yamashita (1-0) in the fifth inning after going four shutout to start. A sac fly drove in the first run for the Urban Knights.
 
Saint Martin's continued to tack onto the score, scoring one in the seventh on a double steal, with Hegamin stealing home on the play. Their final run came in the top of the ninth when Dakota Hill drove in Hunter Kosmider on a ground ball.
 
Yamashita went the first five innings, allowing only one run on four hits. The freshman struck out two, and forced seven fly outs, and six ground outs. Butler came in at the start of the sixth and proceeded to silence the Urban Knights' bats. Butler went three shutout innings, allowing only three hits, and striking out one. Max Johnson got his first outing of the year, throwing a shutout ninth inning to seal the victory.

"It was a great weekend overall for us as we now head into conference play," said head coach Kelly Gau. "On the pitching side, it was good to see our freshman arms continue to perform when called upon. Justice and Finnley were phenomenal today on top of other performances the last couple of days. Offensively, we had great contributions for different guys each game. Today was our best game at hitting situationally, and scoring based on what the pitcher and defense gave us. We look forward to getting back after it next weekend."
 
The Saints outscored Academy of Art 27-to-19 in the series to take three out of four on the road. Saint Martin's concludes non-conference and starts GNAC action against Concordia on February 29 on the road. First pitch is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. with live stats and video available on smusaints.com.