Box Score

LACEY, Wash. – With rain drops falling throughout the day, the Crusaders defense made a few costly miscues early Thursday afternoon, and St. Martin's took advantage.

The Saints plated eight unearned runs to top visiting Northwest Nazarene, 8-1, in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference make-up softball contest.

"The story of the game was we didn't show up to play defensively," NNU softball coach Rich Wagner said. "We didn't mentally show up to play defense until the fourth inning."

After spotting the Saints a 2-0 edge on two unearned runs in the bottom of the first, the Crusaders (11-28 overall, 3-13 GNAC) quickly answered in the top of the second.

Shelby Johnson led off the inning for the Crusaders and was hit by a pitch, moved to second on a wild pitch, took third on a Kayla Sevier groundout and scored on a two-out infield single by Ali Schauer.

But St. Martin's (21-17, 10-6) continued to rally, helped by Crusader miscues, scoring five runs in the bottom of the second helped by two errors.

Schauer and Whitney Carlton each had a hit to lead the offense for NNU, which simply couldn't overcome the Saints' unearned runs.

"Offensively, we hit five or six balls hard right at people," Wagner said.

The Crusaders look to bounce back quickly as NNU is back in action Friday, playing a doubleheader at Western Washington starting at 1 p.m. (PT).