LACEY, WASH. – The Central Washington University baseball team (14-20-1, 11-16) finished their four-game series against Saint Martin's University (15-21, 11-16). The Wildcats dropped game one on the day and game two was cancelled due to lack of light.
Game one was a long one. A five-hour game that included a two-hour rain delay, made for a tough way to lose a game. Both team's offense came to life early in the game. The Wildcats scored three runs in the first inning thanks to a two out, two RBI double from
Jesse Unger that scored
Jason Hill and
Mitch Lesmeister.
Yi-an Pan then followed with an RBI single of his own.
The Saints answered back with three runs of their own. After two quick outs, SMU put together two base runners and then Austin Feist hit a two-run homerun to tie the game at three. Central added two more runs in the top of the fourth inning to retake the lead. In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Saints added one run before the game went into an hour and a half rain delay.
The delay marked the end of
Hunter French's day who went just three innings and allowed six runs on seven hits and struck out just one batter.
Jacob Forrester came in on relief after the delay and struggled to get comfortable and walked three batters before getting out of the inning. After four full innings of play, the Saints led 7-5.
Both teams added a run to their tallies in the fifth inning. Central's run came after both
Luke Smith and
Trevor Tripoli drew walks and then Lesmeister brought in Smith with a two out single to right field. Central's only other run came in the seventh inning when
Justin Hampson singled up the middle bringing in
Robert Ball who reach after getting hit by a pitch.
Lesmeister led the Wildcat offense going 3-3 with a walk, an RBI and scored two runs in the game. The big news of the game came in the third inning.
Yi-an Pan was able to reach on a throwing error by the second baseman. Pan went down on the play and did not return.
Pan was taken to the nearest hospital to get examined and is expected to be out the rest of the year with a left knee injury.
Due to the rain delay and the stoppage in play, game two started almost four hours late and was eventually cancelled due to the lack of light. The stats and results will not count to towards either teams record.
"We let the rain delay get to us," CWU Head Coach
Desi Storey said. "We struggled out of the gate after the delay and it hurt us. Obviously having Yi-An go down is something that also something that really affected us. But we didn't put ourselves in a good place to win. Our pitchers struggled to find the zone and when we did, Saint Martin's was able to put good swings on the ball and did well. You have to give them credit."
The Wildcats will be back in action next Friday and Saturday for a four-game series at Western Oregon University.
