The 2024 run by the Saint Martin’s softball team is one for the history books as they closed their postseason with one win and two defeats in the NCAA DII West Region Championship Tournament held at Bobby Welch Halle Field in Nampa, ID last week.
As this year’s No. 7 seed in the West, this is the Saints’ first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 2015. They got the regional nod after mustering a third-place finish in the GNAC Softball Championships held at Viking Field in Bellingham, WA a week before, qualifying for the conference playoffs through a successful regular season as they got the #3 seed in GNAC with 25 wins.
May 9th, Thursday, was the first NCAA regional game for the Saints after 9 years and it was against conference rivals and No. 2 seed Northwest Nazarene, who has become a somewhat unsolved puzzle for the Saints the whole season. And this tournament opener was a thriller but not the way the Saints wanted.
A mean-spirited comeback from the Saints in the final inning was canceled out by the Nighthawks’ Sidney Booth, who pitched for six innings before delivering a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh to break the hearts of the visiting Saints and relegate them to the loser’s bracket.
Trailing 2-0 down earlier after NNU’s Emma Bumatay hit a homer and two runs batted in (RBIs), the Saints built momentum as the bats heated up in the second half of the match, thanks to efforts of Ashley Goodale and Kekai Schultz in plate discipline.
The Saints finally found the breakthrough in the seventh as a hit by Vanessa Smoke gave two unearned runs to Shelby Lawson and Britney Patrick, aided by a pair of defensive miscues by the Nighthawks shortstop, to tie the score at 2-2.
But it was the GNAC Pitcher of the Year Sidney Booth who gave the dagger hit as she faced Saints’ pitcher and GNAC All-Conference Second Team select Chloe Leverington in the final bat.
Leverington, who pitched for the whole game for the Saints, was held to four strikeouts and only allowed three runs on nine hits before Booth punched a 1-2 pitch into right field to give the win to the Nighthawks in dramatic fashion.
After they were one possession away from an opening win against the Nighthawks, the Saints regrouped to find the perfect response as they needed a win to continue their run in the NCAA West Regionals in Nampa.
Fortunately, they delivered huge this time as the Saints rallied past a seven-run first-inning blitzkrieg to knock the Concordia University Irvine out of the tournament as the Saints lived to fight another round in the regional tournament last Friday, May 10, at 1:00 p.m.
The first-round knockout punches were delivered by the Saints, figuratively, as Ashley Goodale, Heather Ebner, and Britney Patrick made back-to-back-to-back singles to load the bases with zero outs in the bottom of the first.
Shelby Lawson then drew a bases-loaded walk and Olivia Matlock cleared the bases with a three-run double while Vanessa Smoke kept things rolling with an RBI-double all before the first out was recorded.
Destiny Conerly kept the momentum with another double while Goodale capped the insane rally with another run to make it 7-1, just in the first inning.
This healthy lead was more than enough for the Saints to defend for the rest of the match, led by pitcher Chloe Leverington who only allowed two total runs since, with the cherry on top being another run scored by Conerly in the fifth to make it 8.
The Nighthawks’ defeat to Cal State Dominguez earlier sets up this rubber match with the Saints for a slot for the NCAA West Regional Championship, but it seems that the Saints still can’t figure out the Nighthawks as they exited the tournament in a hard-fought match Friday at 4:15 p.m.
Like their tournament opener the day before, the Nighthawks led 2-0 early in the game thanks to RBIs from Clarissa Moreno and Emma Bumatay before the Saints rallied again but this time in the fifth with two RBI singles from Olivia Matlock and Vanessa Smoke tied the game again at 2-2.
With the similar stalemate looking familiar, Northwest Nazarene responded with a run of their own as Emma Mulligan hit a home run that added two more runs in the process to regain their two-point cushion.
The Saints tried to counter through the efforts from freshman Bridget Johnson and Amanda Peterson, but the Nighthawks' momentum was just too much as they widened their lead in the sixth inning adding three more runs to the board making it a 7-2 ballgame.
Shelby Lawson added a consolation run in the seventh as the Saints ended their season in Nampa.
In the postgame interviews, Saints softball head coach Jim Peterson thanked the team’s seniors who have been the backbone of the team, reflecting on the graduating class’s achievement of a GNAC final four appearance for four straight years and capping off their final year with this historic feat in the regional tournament.
“This has been a very good year for us. We really had a tough schedule playing a lot of teams. We’re proud of these players [seniors] that elevated our program the way they did,” said coach Jim Peterson.
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