TURLOCK, CA / EUGENE, OR — The Saint Martin's University Baseball team (0-11) played back-to-back weekends facing Stanislaus State and Bushnell University in out-of-conference action.

Saint Martin's faced a well-rounded Stanislaus State team in Turlock, California. The Saints offense struggled to score throughout the weekend and dropped all three matchups to the Warriors - 10-1, 10-2, and 7-1. Offensively, the Saints saw production from multiple different players. Peter Hollabaugh recorded two RBIs on the weekend with Cade Gibson and Collin Bell each recording one. Jake Schumacher, Blaze Wong, and Aaron Nease would be the starting pitchers in the series. 

The following weekend would see the Saints travel to Eugene where they faced the Bushnell Beacons in a four-game series split between two days. Although the Saints fell short, SMU capitalized on scoring opportunities and saw great improvement in different aspects of their game. The Saints' offense found their rhythm behind the plate delivering key RBIs and extra-base hits to drive in runs. In the first game, Kelton Tom would get the Saints on the board with a double to left center. This would be followed by two more runs in the fifth inning with an RBI by Hunter Sasaki and a fielding error by the Beacons. The Saints would drop the first game 4-3 after holding the lead through the 7th inning before the Beacons earned two runs in the 8th. Shortly following the first game of the day, the Saints began the second game at a slower pace. Finding themselves at a 5-0 deficit at the top of the 4th inning, the Saints responded by scoring two runs thanks to a single hit into left field by Kyle Schabot. The Saints would take the lead in the 5th inning following a series of fielding errors by Bushnell. The Beacons would take the lead in the 6th inning and the Saints would not be able to recover the lead. Saint Martin's would drop the second game 7-6.

The third game of the series would be the highest-scoring game of the weekend. The Saints would record 12 runs with multiple players contributing to the offensively dominated game. Alex Hartnett would lead the team with 4 RBIs including a two-run homer to kick off the first inning. Bell and Schabot would each earn two RBIs a piece with Zen Staszkow, Evan Nicol, and Rylen Miyasaki recording one each. The Saints would unfortunately drop the game 13-12 after a walk off by Bushnell. Saint Martin's would drop the last game of the series 8-7 after a gritty fight with the Beacons. Both teams would be neck and neck with runs being exchanged regularly. Isaac Hoag would lead the offense recording 2 RBIs with Sasaki, Gibson, and Nicol earning one each. Both teams would go into the 8th inning with seven runs apiece. The Saints would not be able to get any runners on base and would enter the bottom half of the inning looking to stop the Beacons from scoring. The Beacons would quickly get a runner on third with no outs before walking off the final contest with an RBI single.

Interim Head Coach Joey Swanson shared his thoughts on the team's performance against Bushnell this past weekend:

"We cleaned up some defensive mistakes and played good baseball all weekend long. We were on the barrel all weekend long. Pitchers took a big step forward and it helped with our defense playing well. It's not going to get any easier in GNAC play. Our hope is we've learned enough about ourselves and each other that we can apply our lesson for some wins in GNAC play at the end of the month."

The Saints are looking forward to starting GNAC play at the end of the month. Saint Martin's will host Central Washington University for their home opener on February 28th at Saints Field. See their full schedule here.