LACEY, Wash. – The Saint Martin's softball team (25-15, 12-8 GNAC) took three of four midweek contests, enroute to putting themselves one win away from clinching a spot in the GNAC tournament in Burnaby, BC. In addition to the success on the diamond, the Saints also celebrated the careers of three seniors that have left their mark on the program: Abby Runyon, Megan Convery, and Olivia Schmidt.
 
The first midweek doubleheader was the resumption of a rained-out game against Western Oregon from last month, with the Saints leading 8-3 in the bottom of the third. Although the Wolves put up a good fight in a comeback effort, the Saints held on to the lead, up 9-5 going into the bottom of the seventh. Things got hairy for SMU in the final half inning, with WOU putting up two and bringing the tying run to the plate. That's when Chloe Leverington stepped into the pitcher's circle and threw just three pitches to induce a fly out and lock down the victory for her ninth save of the season. Runyon got credit for the win, while Kekai Schultz led the way with three RBIs, and Shay Lopes, Britney Patrick, and Shelby Lawson all scored two runs.
FINAL: Saint Martin's 9, Western Oregon 7
 
SMU took a 1-0 lead right away in game two on Tuesday, with Patrick shooting a sac fly to center field that scored Haley Agena. After Western Oregon tied up the game in the top of the fourth, it was Rylee Gaudia coming up clutch in the bottom half of the frame, making it 2-1 with an RBI double to left center that scored Convery. The Saints tacked on one more in each of the following innings, with an RBI error in the fifth off the bat of Vanessa Smoke, and solo home run by Lawson in the sixth. Tia Ridings got credit for the win allowing just one run over 5.1 innings, while Leverington pitched the final 1.2 frames to get save number 10 on her season.
FINAL: Saint Martin's 4, Western Oregon 1
 
It was a tough luck loss for Ridings on game one on Wednesday, where she allowed just one earned run, but the SMU offense couldn't find paydirt against a good starting pitcher for Western Washington. Ridings went the first 5.1 innings before Leverington took over and blanked the Vikings the rest of the way. Patrick, Lopes, and Gaudia were the only Saint Martin's batters to record hits and the WWU defense kept making plays throughout. In the end, Western Washington took it by two.
FINAL: Western Washington 2, Saint Martin's 0
 
The Saints fell behind 1-0 in game two but scraped out a come-from-behind victory to finish week of rescheduled games with a win. Smoke evened up the score with a sac fly in the bottom of the second, then in the third, it was a huge crack by Gaudia who laced a double down the left field line with the bases loaded to score two and make it 3-1. Patrick continued leading the team in sac flies when she hit another in the fourth, and the SMU scoring was rounded out in the sixth when Schmidt ripped an RBI single in her final game at Saints Field. Runyon was also in her final home game as a Saint and pitched 5.1 innings to get the win, while, and stop me if you've heard this before, Leverington came on for the save. Leverington currently sits second in all of Division II with 11 saves.
FINAL: Saint Martin's 5, Western Washington 2
 
The Saints now head to Ellensburg, Washington to take on Central (20-24, 8-12 GNAC) for their final series of the 2023 regular season. Thanks to their success this week, SMU needs just one win over the Wildcats to book their ticket to GNAC Tournament in Canada next week. The teams will match up on Saturday at 1 PM and 3 PM and Sunday at 1 PM and 3 PM.