GNAC Baseball: Wolves Take Two More From the Saints

Western Oregon moves to 10-2 in conference play with sweep.

Salem-News.com SPORTS

MONMOUTH, Ore. - Western Oregon rallied for a 4-3, 10-inning win in game one and then rolled to a 7-1 verdict in the nightcap to claim a pair of baseball victories over Saint Martin’s on Sunday afternoon at the WOU Baseball Field.

After a tense game one victory where the hosts rallied twice to win, the Wolves captured their eighth straight game in easy fashion in the second contest, improving to 20-15 on the season and to 10-2 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.

Saint Martin’s falls to 12-24 on the year and to 4-8 in league play.

In game one, WOU’s Dan Straily and SMU’s Nick Bolthouse hooked up in a pitcher’s duel.

Straily pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing only three hits and fanning five before giving way to Ben Shivers to start the eighth inning.

Against Bolthouse, WOU threatened in the first inning when lead-off batter Bryan Stone singled, and then was headed for home on Kevin Corrigan’s two-bagger down the leftfield line.

But the ball got caught under the fence for a ground-rule double, and Stone had to return to third.

But Bolthouse settled in after that, allowing only four hits while fanning four through the seventh.

And with two outs in the SMU eighth, reliever Shivers got into trouble with a pair of walks and Shane Schoeneberg made him pay with a two-run double to rightfield.

Saints reliever Andrew Neisinger worked out of trouble in the eighth inning, but then got into trouble again in the ninth by hitting the first two batters that he faced (Randy Summers and Tony Jones).

Adam Siler then entered the game, but Aaron Sutton greeted him with a perfect base-hit bunt down the third base line to load the bases.

Paul Fisher followed with a single down the leftfield line to score Summers and Jones and tie the game at 2-2. Siler then battled back with a force out and two fly outs to send the game to extra innings.

Andrew Salinas, who had entered the game for SMU at first base when Siler went to the mound, hit a two-out single to left field in the top of the 10th to bring home Maki Smith, who had led off the inning with a single to give the Saints a 3-2 lead.

Siler then allowed a lead-off double to Corrigan to start the bottom of the tenth, got two ground ball outs, before Jones tripled to tie the game, and Sutton singled him home to give the Wolves the 4-3 win.

Schoeneberg and Vince Maughn had two hits each for the Saints in the first game.

Corrigan was 4-for-5 with two doubles for WOU, while Sutton went 3-for-5. Fisher and Stone also had two hits in game one.

In the second game, WOU used Saint Martin’s mistakes to get on the board early.

The Wolves scored two runs in the second inning without a hit—using three walks and a hit batter for fuel.

In the third, an error and a another hit batter set things up for a Brent Mertens suicide squeeze base hit, bringing in another run.

The Saints loaded the bases with no one out in the fourth on a pair of hits and a walk, the first given up by starter Mike Cusick.

After Cusick got a strikeout, reliever Mike Ward came in and threw a double-play ground ball to kill the rally.

The Wolves then tacked on insurance runs in the fourth. Fisher led off with a solo home run to left, and Stone, who doubled, would soon score on Jiles’ single to make it 5-0.

A Corrigan sacrifice fly moved the count to 6-0. The Saints got on board in the sixth on a Siler RBI-single, scoring Smith who had singled to lead off the inning.

WOU added another run in the seventh on a Corrigan double and Roberto Reyes single.

Western Oregon will stay home next weekend, hosting Central Washington in a Saturday-Sunday four-game series.

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