MISSOULA, Mont. – The Saints won game three and four of their road series against Montana State Billings for a full sweep of the weekend and sole possession of first place in conference standings.
 
In the opener, the Yellowjackets (11-32, 4-16 GNAC) got going early, scoring two runs in the bottom of the first inning. The Saints (25-14, 13-3 GNAC) responded immediately with a RBI single from Megan Convery and an RBI double by Malia Pinder.
 
MSUB scored two more runs in the top of the third inning to retake the lead. In the fourth inning, Chloe Leverington replaced Tia Ridings in the circle and struck out two of her first three batters faced. Leverington locked in fast and struck out two more batters in the bottom of the fifth just before a monster inning from the Saints offense.
 
In the top of the sixth inning the Saints scored eight runs highlighted by an RBI double from Pinder, a 2-RBI triple by Britney Patrick and a RBI double from Shay Lopes.
 
Leverington continued her dominance in the circle and Vanessa Smoke followed up that huge inning with a leadoff solo homerun in the top of the seventh inning to add an emphatic insurance run. Kekai Schultz hit a sac fly to bring home Patrick and the Saints went into the last half inning with an eight run lead.
 
Leverington made short work of the side bringing her strikeout total to eight and getting the win 12-4 over the Yellowjackets.
 
In the final game of the series, SMU struck first scoring two runs in the opening inning of the game with RBI's from Patrick and Schultz. Patrick added to her RBI tally in the second inning bringing the Saints' lead to 3-0.
 
Montana State Billings found their footing and scored two runs in the bottom of the third to slim the deficit and one run in the fourth inning to tie the game 3-3.
 
Patrick continued her great day at the plate with runners in scoring position she brought home a run with a single to give SMU a 4-3 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth.
 
The Saints' defense held up and secured the sweep with a 4-3 win in the final game of the road series.
 
The Saints will be back home next weekend hosting NNU on April 22 & 23. Live stats and video will be available on smusaints.com.