LACEY, Wash. – The Saint Martin's baseball team (4-10, 2-2 GNAC) opened their conference season on Sunday and Monday against Central Washington University (6-13, 2-2 GNAC). The Saints tallied two wins, one on each day, by scores of 1-0 and 6-5, while falling twice as well, by scores of 7-2 and 7-5.
Justice Yamashita pitched absolutely lights out in the 1-0 win, a performance which garnered him GNAC Pitcher of the Week accolades, while
Brady Bean was consistent in every game of the weekend, notching six hits and scoring four runs.
The Saints fell behind 7-0 in game one on Sunday and didn't have enough time to catch back up. They did break the goose egg in the fifth, however, when Bean singled
Braeden McNally into scoring position and
Alohi Arecchi followed that up with a run-scoring double. Bean was then pushed across thanks to a
Michael Yamaguchi sac fly.
Finnley Butler performed admirably out of the pen, allowing just two runs in his five innings of work.
FINAL: Central Washington 7, Saint Martin's 2
Game two on Sunday was the type of game that has Wildcats seeing nightmares of Yamashita for years in the future as the junior hurler was all over CWU to stifle their offense. Yamashita threw all seven innings for a complete game shutout and allowed just three hits and only walked two. He also game through with some very clutch strikeouts as he had eight of them on the day. The breakthrough offensively came in the bottom of the sixth when Bean got aboard thanks to a one-out infield single. With two outs, Bean stole second, then Yamaguchi came through when SMU needed it, singling through the left side and giving the Saints the lone run they needed.
FINAL: Saint Martin's 1, Central Washington 0
Bean started the game hot on Monday too as the freshman laced a triple to lead off the bottom of the first before Arecchi scored him on a sac fly. In the second, an error by Central plus a two-RBI double from Bean, and a Yamaguchi single that scored Bean was enough for SMU to take a 5-3 lead. However, the Wildcats scored the final four runs of the contest to win the game.
FINAL: Central Washington 7, Saint Martin's 3
It was a crazy finale to the conference opening series so hopefully the fans stuck around to see all four games. It started with
Nikki Scott pitching a solid first five innings, allowing no earned runs and striking out three. The fourth inning held the offensive outburst SMU needed. First, they got an RBI single from
Trevor McCorkle. Then,
Mark Steward scored on an error. After a fielder's choice RBI from McNally, Bean helped score McNally on a single. A
Dylan McLaughlin sac fly in the fifth made it 5-1 SMU, and
Austin Schaler scoring on a wild pitch one inning later made it six. Things got dicey in the final frame when CWU put three across, but a lethal throw from Schaler to third base got the critical final out.
FINAL: Saint Martin's 6, Central Washington 5
The Saints will host George Fox this weekend on Saturday and Sunday.
