MONMOUTH, Ore. – In their first meeting of the year, the Western Oregon and Saint Martin's baseball teams split a doubleheader Saturday at WOU Baseball Field. The Wolves took game one 3-0 before the Saints bounced back for a 6-2 victory in the nightcap.
The shutout win for Western Oregon (14-7, 11-7 GNAC) was the third shutout victory of the season for the Wolves, all thrown by different starting pitchers.
Alex Roth set a new school record and tied the Great Northwest Athletic Conference record with 15 strikeouts in the start. Roth (5-0) threw seven shutout innings, giving up three hits, no runs, walking one and striking out 15. The 15 strikeouts included a run of seven consecutive between the first and third innings. Roth was perfect through 3.2 innings before Aaron Renaud doubled to right-center to break up the festivities.
Connor McCord added another three whiffs in two innings of relief to earn the save and tack on a second GNAC record for the Wolves. The 18 combined strikeouts between the two pitchers is the second time this year the WOU pitching staff has tied the GNAC record for strikeouts in a game. Of the five instances it has been achieved in conference history, three are by Western Oregon.
The Wolves didn't get their first hit until the sixth inning when
Blayze Arcano led off with a single up the middle. The hit helped to break the 0-0 tie when Arcano scored three batters later on a fielder's choice.
Saint Martin's (9-17, 5-12 GNAC) starting pitcher Aaron Shoup made it into the seventh before being pulled from the game. Shoup (2-4) allowed two runs on two hits, walking three and striking out two for the quality start, but could not get the offensive backing he needed.
WOU added on insurance in both the seventh and eighth.
Griffey Halle accounted for each of those runs, doubling in the seventh before being scored by
Derek Maiben's single and then hitting his team-leading sixth home run of the season in the eighth.
Game two saw all of the scoring for both sides occur inside the first three innings.
Collin Runge led off the first with a single and scored later on a grounder to the right side. That would prove the only lead of the game for the Wolves.
The Saints responded with four runs on three hits in the top of the second to take their first lead of the day. The last two runs of the inning came on a throwing error that could have closed out the frame, instead letting in a pair of unearned runs.
Colton Peha paced the SMU offense with a 2-for-4 performance in game two, scoring a run as well.
Kolbe Bales threw 4.1 shutout innings of relief to close out the game, allowing just two hits, walking one and striking out five.
Arcano was the only player for WOU to collect a hit in both games, finishing a combined 2-for-5 with a triple and two runs scored.
The win in game two for Saint Martin's broke a streak of 14 consecutive wins over the Saints for Western Oregon. It is SMU's first win over WOU since March 25, 2017, and their first win in Monmouth since April 27, 2014.
WOU and SMU will play the final two games of the series as a doubleheader Sunday in Monmouth. First pitch in game one of the twin bill March 31 is set for 12 p.m.
