The #17 ranked Saint Martin’s softball team travels to Arcata, California to take on Grand Canyon in the first game of the NCAA Division II tournament on Friday. The Saints are the #5 seed in the Western Regional and will face the #4 seed ‘Lopes at 1:30 PM. Joining them in the double-elimination sub-regional are the #8 seed UC San Diego and the #1 seed and host Humboldt State.

Video and live stats for the games are available from the Humboldt State athletics website by clicking here.

Here is a quick look at the three teams the Saints will/could face in their sub-regional bracket…

Grand Canyon – The ‘Lopes come into their final Division II softball tournament (they will be transitioning to Division I after this season) at 39-17 overall, finishing fourth in the PacWest. They were ranked #17 in the nation before dropping out in the last poll after losing three of the last four games to Dixie State.

The ‘Lopes have a potent one-two punch in the circle with juniors Stephanie Pesquiera and Kiki Sepulveda. Pesquiera went 20-10 with a 1.74 ERA and 121 strikeouts this season as their #1 starter while Sepulveda went 13-4 with a 1.69 ERA. Junior outfielder Claire Zampini and sophomore shortstop Kelsey Barak led them offensively. Zampini hit .441 with 32 RBIs and Barak led the team with six home runs and 15 doubles and finished second with 41 RBIs. Kayla Henry is a speedy outfielder who stole 29 bases with nine triples and a .426 batting average.

Grand Canyon and the Saints participated in the Tournament of Champions in Turlock, California but did not meet. The ‘Lopes played two GNAC teams during the regular season beating Simon Fraser 7-1 on February 9th in Las Vegas and took a 5-0 win over Northwest Nazarene at the Touranment of Champions.

Humboldt State – The Lumberjacks are the #5 ranked team in the nation at 47-12 overall this season and were winners of the CCAA regular season and tourament.

Humboldt State is led by junior first baseman Chrissy Stalf, who hit .411 this season and leads the nation with 26 homeruns. The Lumberjacks as a team hit 103 homeruns this season. Sophomore Hannah Williams hit 16 bombs and drove in a team high 56 runs and senior Courtney Hiatt hit 14 homers with 47 RBIs. Freshman Katie Obbema went 26-3 with a 2.10 ERA as their #1 pitcher.

Saint Martin’s made a statement at the Tournament of Champions with a 5-4 win over the Lumberjacks. Errors killed Humbolt State in that game with three of the five Saint Martin’s runs coming after errors including the game winning run in the seventh inning. Sam Munger and Dani wall each had two hits for the Saints and Wall drove in three runs while Stalf and Williams homered for the ‘Jacks.

UC San Diego – The Tritons finished second in the CCAA to Humboldt State at 24-12 in conference play and 33-23 overall. Five of those losses came to their first round opponent, Humboldt State, including a loss in the CCAA tournament championship game.

Nothing much jumps out at you about the Tritons as a team. Senior Nicole Spangler and junior Caitlin Brown lead their offense. Spangler hit .347 with 13 doubles and 26 RBIs while Brown hit led the team with nine home runs and 40 RBIs. Four different pitchers made 20+ appearances for the Tritons. Junior Jennifer Manuel went 11-3 with a 2.37 ERA.

The Tritons also took part in the Tournament of Champions but didn’t face the Saints. UCSD faced one GNAC team this season taking three games of four against Western Oregon early in the season at home.

College softball

GNAC tournament
Saint Martin’s 7, Simon Fraser 3

Lacey McGladrey drew a bases loaded walk and Megan Miller followed her with a bases clearing double as Saint Martin’s finally broke through with four runs in the top of the 8th inning to knock off Simon Fraser 7-3 and move into the GNAC championship game on Saturday in Billings, Montana. Miller went 2-for-5 in the game and drove in four runs and Sam Munger went 4-for-5 with an RBI.

Saint Martin’s got on the board right away when Munger scored all the way from first on an error by the Simon Fraser left fielder off of the bat of Joslyn Eugenio. But The Clan answered right back in the second inning with a lead off center field blast from Trisha Bouchard and an inning later added two runs when Munger hit Bouchard with the bases loaded and Nicole Ratel grounded out to drive in one more giving Simon Fraser a 3-1 lead.

In the top of the fifth, back-to-back singles by Miller and Munger drove in two runs to put the Saints back on level ground. Neither team could break through in the rest of the way and the game would head to extra innings.

Taviah Jenkins led off the top of the eighth inning with her third walk of the game followed by a Aubree Pocklington single and a Madi Davis walk to load the bases. McGladrey then took the base on balls to bring Jenkins in for what would turn out to be the game winning run. Miller then found a gap in left center and all three Saints scored to give them a 7-3 lead heading into the bottom of the 8th.

Munger, who switched back and forth throughout the game with Taylor Bakos on the mound, sent The Clan down 1-2-3 in the eighth to secure the win for the Saints. Munger pitched six innings in total striking out four batters while Bakos pitched two scoreless innings in relief.

The Saints move on to the championship game tomorrow and will face the winner of the consolation bracket game between Simon Fraser and either Western Oregon or Central Washington. The Saints will have two chances to get one win in the double elimination tournament. First pitch is set for 11:00 AM. The winner of the GNAC gets an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II tournament.

Saint Martin’s Lacey McGladrey was named Player of the Year, Sam Munger picked up Pitchers of the Year honors and Rick Noren was selected Coach of the Year on Tuesday when the Great Northwest Athletic Conference released their post season awards on Tuesday.

Munger was also selected to the GNAC’s first team as a shortstop and Joslyn Eugenio was also named to the first team for the third time in her career. Madi Davis was named to the second team and Taylor Bakos, Taviah Jenkins, Megan Miller, Aubree Pocklington and Dani Wall were all earned honorable mention. For more on each Saint that was honored, read more at SMUSaints.com.

The Saints have also excelled in the classroom placing seven players on the GNAC All-Academic team, the most of any team in the conference. Davis had the highest GPA for the second straight season while Eugenio, McGladrey, Pocklington, Bakos, Jenkins and Wall were all honored for their academic accomplishments. Read more here.

As if that wasn’t enough, SMU moved up to #22 in the nation following their weekend sweep of Western Oregon and Central Washington. The Saints are now 36-13 overall this season and captured their first GNAC regular season title. They open up the conference tournament in Billings on Thursday at 1:30 PM against #4 seed Central Washington. For live stats and live video for Thursdays game, click here.