Baseball: Saints suffer two losses in GNAC tournament

March 11, 2007

Ellensburg, WA – Central Washington picked up the victory in game one on a walk-off homerun in the bottom of the ninth to defeat Saint Martin’s 8-7, the Saints then fell to Western Oregon 18-2 in game two.

The Saints took the early lead in game one posting a five spot in the first inning. Nate Baker walked and scored on a double by Adam Siler. Andrew Salinas then homered to left field to put the Saints up 3-0. Shane Schoeneberg tripled and scored on a wild pitch. Two batters later Vince Maughan singled to score Craig Yuhas.

The Wildcats got three back in the first two innings and the picked up two more in the fourth on RBI singles by Siler and Salinas. Central struck for three more in the seventh then in the bottom of the ninth Justin Marshall hit a one out, two run blast to give the Wildcats the win.

The Saints outhit the Wildcats 12-11 and got two hits each from Baker, Siler, Salinas, Schoeneberg, Maughan and Jake Orosco. Jamie Nilson led the Wildcats with three hits.

Siler, who hadn’t given up a run in seven innings this season, was tagged with the loss.

In game two Western Oregon posted 18 hits including three home runs to beat the Saints. The Wolves quickly took a decisive lead scoring six runs in the second and six in the third. They then scored one in the fifth, two in the seventh and three more in the eighth.

Saint Martin’s didn’t get on the board until the eighth when Ty Kuehl hit a two run blast to left field. Curtis Thibault and Andy Cole had two hits each for the Saints.

The Wildcats were led by designated hitter Kevin Corrigan who had two homers, a single and drove in four runs. Josh McGowen had a three run shot in the third and had a total of five RBIs on the day. Brent Mertens drove in three runs.

Both teams used a total of six pitchers in the game. Mark Holleman picked up the win for the Wolves while Tip Wonhoff suffered the loss.

Both the Wolves and Saints are now 1-2, while Central is 2-0 in the three-day event, which concludes today with two more games. The Saints wrap-up play with a single game against Central Washington.