Saints grab first with sweep of Concordia

Saint Martin’s entered a doubleheader Friday in Lacey a game down in the loss column to visiting Concordia University at the top of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference fast-pitch standings.

The Saints left the ballpark in first place.

Senior Megan Miller drove in the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the seventh in a 1-0 victory in the opener. In the second game, the Saints rode seven singles in a four-run sixth inning to a 6-2 win and a sweep of the Portland-based Cavaliers.

“Our team is in such a good place,” said Miller, who played in high school at Cascade of Everett.

Saint Martin’s improved to 23-4 for the season, 8-2 in the GNAC. Concordia holds onto second place at 5-3 in the GNAC, 17-10 overall.

In the first game, the Saints had one hit — an infield single — and two base runners through five innings against Concordia pitcher Mattie Boucher, a sophomore from W.F. West High in Chehalis and a player SMU coach Rick Noren tried to recruit.

In the sixth, the Saints got to Boucher, loading the bases with nobody out on consecutive sharp singles by Miller and Mary Dettling and a Cavaliers error, with leading run producer Corrie Wilson at the plate.

Wilson took strike three on the outside corner for the first out, then Boucher got out of the mess on line-drive outs by Kim Nelson and Jackie Schmaeling.

After Saints starter Loryn Williams finished off the Cavaliers one-two-three in the top of the seventh, junior Alyssa Slate cracked a two-out single and stole second, setting the stage for Miller’s game-winner.

“I didn’t want the game to go to extras,” said Miller, the No. 9 hitter in the lineup. “I wanted to end it right now.”

Noren said Miller had two poor at-bats in the opener before hitting the ball hard in the sixth and seventh.

“She’s been fighting herself,” Noren said, “so to see her come through with a clutch hit is really gratifying.”

Williams, a freshman right-hander from Fairview, Oregon, improved to 9-2 for the season with a two-hit shutout. She walked one and struck out two, and worked out of two-on jams in the third and fourth.

In the second game, the Saints got on the board in the third when Dettling doubled deep to right and eventually came home on Wilson’s sacrifice fly, her team-leading 30th RBI.

Slate knocked in a run with a single in the fourth. Then, in the sixth, Slate and Miller knocked in runs with singles, and freshman Lauren Diuco capped a 3-for-4 game with a two-run single.

Nelson (8-2) earned the win in the second game, allowing two runs on five hits through 6  2/3 innings. Williams got the final out after the Cavaliers scored their only runs of the day on a two-out, bases-loaded single by Kelsie Merritt.

Dettling, a junior from Reno, had a 3-for-5 doubleheader to boost her batting average to .453.

This story was originally published March 25, 2016 at 8:01 PM with the headline "Saints grab first with sweep of Concordia."