SAN MARCOS, CA — Saint Martin's Baseball (0-4) opened their season in southern California this past weekend in four contests against a talented Cal State San Marcos squad.

The Saints would open the series with a productive first inning as Kyle Schabot recorded an RBI on a single to center field. However, the Saints would quickly fall behind when CSU-San Marcos would halt their offensive production. Hunter Sasaki would record three hits and Schabot would record two in total, but the Saints would not be able to capitalize and would ultimately drop the first game 9-1 to the Cougars.

In Saturday's opening contest, the Saints' offense would come alive by scoring 13 runs, which included a home run by Peter Hollabaugh in the seventh inning. Sasaki and Alex Hartnett would record two RBIs each, with Hartnett going an impressive 4-5 on his at-bats to help the Saints jump out to a 7-3 lead in the second inning. CSUSM would strike back in the second and third innings to snatch the lead, and while SMU would put up more runs, they would ultimately fall behind the Cougars' pace as they would lose, 17-13. The second game of the doubleheader that day would be a seven-inning affair that would see both offenses slow down, but Cal State San Marcos would still be able to jump out to an early 3-0 lead. Sasaki would again lead the offense with 3 RBIs and would receive help from Zen Staszkow, who would contribute an RBI on two hits. Evan Nicol would also have a decent showing over the weekend, contributing an RBI during this contest. The Saints would score two runs in the third inning and three more in the sixth, but a darkness delay would prevent the game from finishing until the next morning.

The Saints would start their third game back up at 11:00 AM on Sunday, trailing by just one run in the seventh inning. Their momentum from the day prior would not carry over, as they would score zero runs with their final three outs, and lose 6-5. The final game of the series would be played shortly after the previous one's conclusion to wrap up their trip to San Marcos. After scoring on a walk in the top of the second, San Marcos would take a 3-1 lead over the Saints by recording two runs in the bottom of the second. Collin Bell blasted a three-run homer to put the Saints ahead in the fourth inning, but the Cougars would reclaim the lead with six runs between the following two innings. The Cougars would win the game by a score of 12-5. Schabot would get hits in all three of his plate appearances in the series's final contest.

Interim Head Baseball Coach Joey Swanson had a lot to look back on from the weekend, and while the results were not what the team wanted, there are still plenty of positives to take away from the series:

"Was really proud of the way all our guys competed. We lost key arms in the off-season and honestly, I'm not sure if they would have had much success against that offense. Coach Garcia's team is coached very well and can really hit and play defense. We will be better for it in the long run competing against a team that was a couple of runs shy from playing in the D2 World Series last year. Our hitters were great all weekend and didn't shy away. Showed a lot of fight at-bat after at-bat. Narrowly out-hitting that lineup is an impressive feat. Everybody showed great competitive juices, and I think we are headed in the right direction. We must continue to trust in the process and build on the culture we are trying to create. Pitching and defense will get better I'm sure, the more we are able to get out and practice. Looking forward to next week at Stanislaus State, which will be another test for us. Not proud of the results but proud of our process." 

SMU Baseball will be back in action this weekend as they travel to Turlock, California to take on Stanislaus State in a three-game series. You can get more information here.