WOODINVILLE, Wash. (Mar. 2) – The Central Washington University baseball team traveled west to play host to Saint Martin's University in their first Great Northwest Athletic Conference games of the season. The games were moved to Woodinville High School due to poor weather conditions in Ellensburg.
 
Tyler Hoefer got the nod for game one of the series and started the game putting down the first seven batters that he faced. On the other side of the ball, the Wildcat offense was able to scrape across two runs in the second inning.
 
Yi-An Pan started the second inning with a single through the right side. Colton Bunt laid down a perfect bunt for a base-hit. In an attempt to advance the runner, Jaden Hassell also bunted. After a throwing error from the opposing pitcher, Pan came around to score and Bunt went from first to third on the play. Later in the inning Michael Peter hit a deep sacrifice fly to bring in Bunt.
 
The Saints came back and responded right away scoring three of their own runs in the top of the third innings. Back to back doubles and then a pair of base hits gave Saint Martin's a three-to-two lead after two and a half innings of play.
 
Central went quiet in their half of the third inning and then erupted in the fourth inning scoring four runs in the inning. Consecutive doubles from Bunt, Hassell, and Robert Ball plated two runs which was followed by a Peter base hit to plate yet another run. The Wildcats ended the fourth inning of action with a six to three lead.
 
Hoefer continued to pitch well and held onto the three-run lead. The junior went 5.1 innings, allowing four runs while striking out three of the 24 batters that he faced. AJ Wood came on in relief and shut the door. He went 3.2 innings allowing just two hits and struck out three of the fourteen batters that he faced.
 
The Wildcats took game one of the day 10-4
 
"We did some great things offensively which was good to see after our last couple of games." said CWU Head Coach Desi Storey. "Pitching was solid and did its job and our defense played a clean game which is always important."
 
Game two was dominated by Connor Stevenson for the first five innings.
 
"He (Stevenson) came out and threw strikes and dominated the strike zone," said Storey. "That's a real point of emphasis for us so that was really good to see."
 
Stevenson sat down the first 15 batters that he saw. Going into the sixth inning, Stevenson was well in command with a two-run lead. Central scored in the second inning after Bunt started off the inning with a ground rule double and later came around to score, and then again in the third when Mitchell Lesmeister singled and came around to score on a defensive error.
 
The sixth inning got interesting after a pinch hitter was able to reach and then move into scoring position following a Wildcat error. After one run had already scored cutting the Central lead to just one, the Saints had runners on first and third base. The Saint Martin's batter attempted a bunt which was caught by Stevenson who then threw over to Yi-An Pan who tagged out the runner at third to escape the inning.
 
Jake Forrester entered the game in the seventh to close the door and did just that. Forrester grabbed his second save by way of the strikeout getting three of the five hitters that he faced to go down on strikes.
 
The Wildcats will take on the Saints tomorrow in another double header at Woodinville High School to close out the series starting at 12pm.
 
Looking ahead to tomorrows games, Storey said, "(James) Brooks and (Hunter) French have to throw well for us tomorrow. That's going to be important for us and if they can do that and our offense can hit the way they did in the first game we will be in a good place to go out and get the sweep that we want."