Host Saints’ bats silenced in exit from GNAC tourney

On Thursday, the Saint Martin’s softball team made two runs stand up in a victory coach Rick Noren called “inspiring.”

Come Friday, the Saints scored zero runs in two Great Northwest Athletic Conference tournament games, and it didn’t stand up to anything.

Saint Martin’s fell, 8-0, to Central Washington in an afternoon elimination game hours after they went down, 4-0, to Western Oregon. The host Saints bowed out of the GNAC tournament and ended their season with a thud, short of Saturday’s championship round.

“This game is about confidence and momentum, and it’s something you’ve got to create,” said Noren, whose team finished the season 34-20. “You’ve got to create that energy.”

Since a four-game home sweep of Northwest Nazarene April 8-9, the Saints won three of their final 13 games.

“It’s been a tailspin like no other,” Noren said.

Western Oregon (31-22) will meet Central (37-14) at noon tomorrow and in a second game, if necessary, at 2:30 p.m. at the Saint Martin’s field. The GNAC tournament winner will earn an automatic berth to the Western Regional at a site to be determined.

Thursday’s tournament-opening 2-0 win over top-seeded Central, Noren said, “was inspiring — great focus, great energy. Even on outs we hit the ball well.”

Against Central, the Saints got three hits off Wildcat pitcher Kayla Smith — a single in the second by junior Corrie Wilson, a double in the third by senior Megan Miller and a fourth-inning single by senior Allie Lovitt.

Central got a single run in the first charged to Saints starter Loryn Williams and another run in the fourth off Kim Nelson, who relieved Williams with one out in the first inning.

In the Central fifth, Alexa Olague, a senior from Tacoma’s Wilson High, led off with a home run before six singles plated five more runs to invoke the eight-run mercy rule.

“Our bats went dead, our pitching went away, Central came and they wanted to win,” Noren said. “That’s the way the game is played.”

In the morning game, the Saints mustered two hits against Western Oregon right-hander Alyson Boytz. The senior from Noti, Oregon, wasn’t overpowering, striking out only two, but she got 15 of 21 outs in the game on infield ground balls.

The Wolves, meanwhile, scored single runs in the second, third, fourth and fifth innings. Ashlee Lynch opened the scoring with a home run off Saints starter Kim Nelson in the second.

Destiny Kuehl, a junior from Portland, delivered an RBI double and a solo home run, and Kelsie Gardner singled in a run.

SMU’s only hits were singles by Nelson in the fourth inning and Paige Miller in the fifth. Just three Saint baserunners reached second base.

Nelson allowed three runs on three hits before she was relieved in the fourth with a runner aboard and nobody out. Williams was charged with one run in her three innings of work for SMU.

“The thing kids have to learn at the college level is every pitch counts,” Noren said. “To be a hitter, you’ve got to get the idea of getting the barrel out and on the ball. We didn’t do the things we needed to do.”

Central Washington 9, Concordia 6

The Wildcats outslugged the Cavaliers to stay alive in a loser-out game Friday afternoon. Olague was 3 for 4 and drove in two runs to lead the Wildcats’ 12-hit attack. Kailyn Campbell was 2-4 with two RBIs.

McKenzie Smith and Courtney Somers drove in two runs apiece for Concordia, which finished its season at 32-23.

This story was originally published April 29, 2016 at 8:36 PM with the headline "Host Saints’ bats silenced in exit from GNAC tourney."