Baseball | 3/23/2013 10:21:00 PM

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

LACEY, Wash. – The Western Oregon baseball team returned to its winning ways on Saturday as the Wolves swept a pair of games from Saint Martin's capturing a 3-1 victory in game one before holding off a late Saints rally for a 5-4 win in game two. With the wins, WOU improves to 13-11 overall, 8-2 in conference play while the Saints fall to 3-21 overall, 1-9 in conference action.

In game one, WOU rode the arms of a strong Wolves pitching staff to grab the first game of the series. Spenser Watkins picked up the win and improved to 4-3 on the season after allowing only two hits while striking out three in five innings of work.  Kody Stone picked up his fifth save of the season while Brian Pisca and Jesse Pratt combined to throw three innings of effective relief as the Wolves claimed the two-run win.

Garrett Harpole gave WOU an early, 1-0 lead as he doubled home Will Minice in the top of the second for the first run of the game. The Wolves would add a run in the fifth on a Daniel McNabb RBI single before Garrett Harpole capped the scoring with a RBI double to score Matt Nylen in the eighth as WOU took a 3-0 lead heading into SMU's final two at-bats.

The Saints managed to cut the lead to two with a run in the bottom of the eight; however, Stone slammed the door shut in the ninth to give the Wolves the win.

WOU had 12 hits in the victory as Chris Bradshaw, McNabb, Blake Miller, Josh Wong and Harpole each has two hits for the Wolves.

Carter took the loss for Saint Martin's and fell to 0-6 on the season after allowing three runs on 10 hits in 7.2 innings of work.

In game two, WOU would jump out to a 5-1 lead before holding onto a 5-4 victory over the Saints.

After the teams traded runs in the first two innings, WOU would grab the lead for good when Michael Gnage delivered a sacrifice fly to right to score Harpole in the fifth inning for a 2-1 lead.

WOU would then explode for three runs in the sixth-inning to grab a four-run advantage. Vince Ampi had the key hit in the frame as his two run home run to left gave the Wolves a 5-1 lead. The blast was the first of the season for Ampi as Nylen added an important RBI double in the inning to give the Wolves a four-run cushion.

Saint Martin's answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning to cut the lead to one; however, Pratt came into the game and closed the door on the Saints, tossing 1.2 innings of scoreless relief to give the Wolves the sweep.

Gary Steindorf earned the win for WOU and improved to 3-2 on the season after allowing four runs on five hits in 5.1 innings of work.

Jeffers took the loss for SMU to fall to 1-4 on the year after allowing four runs on five hits in five innings of work.

WOU will go for the series sweep when the teams conclude the four-game series with a doubleheader on Sunday, March 24, at 12:00 p.m.