BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Great Northwest Athletic Conference career saves leader delivered in a different role on Friday at Viking Field, as Chloe Leverington of Saint Martin’s went the distance in the Saints’ 4-1 win over Central Washington to stave off elimination at the 2024 GNAC Softball Championships.
The right-hander, whose 24 career saves are the most in GNAC history, pitched her seventh-career complete game and her first of the season to help the Saints improve to 26-19 on the year. Leverington struck out four while allowing one run on four hits with no walks in an efficient, 78-pitch performance. “I just wanted to make the most of this opportunity for my team, and I was thinking about going batter-to-batter,” Leverington said after making her first start of the season.
Saint Martin’s plays another elimination game against No. 13 Northwest Nazarene (38-9) with a projected 3:30 p.m. first pitch on Friday afternoon. The winner of the game will advance to Championship Saturday, where it will face No. 14 Western Washington (41-9) for the 2024 GNAC Championships title. “Chloe is usually our closer, but this was an important game for us and she did a great job shutting down Central,” said SMU head coach Jim Peterson. “They (CWU) have some good hitters up there. We had some big hits to put us ahead early, and that was a big key for us.”
The Saints aided their star pitcher with a big first inning, as GNAC Freshman of the Year Heather Ebner delivered an RBI-double and Olivia Matlock followed with a run-scoring ground out to make the score 2-0. Mia Zachary contributed an RBI-single in the second, and Ebner knocked in her second run of the day in the sixth with a single into center field. Ebner finished 3-for-4 and made three plays at third base defensively. “It helped a lot, and it felt almost like the middle of the game when I usually come in,” Leverington said on being spotted a pair of runs before throwing her first pitch. “Once it got to the end it felt natural and I tried to do what I always do. I work well under pressure, so I just let my team work for me and let them trust me.”
Central Washington’s season ended with a record of 17-30, as the Wildcat lineup managed just four knocks against the dominant Leverington. The biggest swing of the bat came from Sasha Mitchell in the bottom of the sixth, as she crushed her first home run of the season over the fence in left field.
The Wildcats used strong defense to help stay in the game, starting in the top of the first when Jillian Hampson threw out a runner at home plate from center field. Senior middle infielders Makenna King (2B) and Laney Kaysner (SS) did their part in the top of the third, each making a dazzling play to keep the Saints off the bases. Kaysner displayed phenomenal hands on a tricky hop to her right, and came up firing a strike to first baseman Brooke Jordan for an out. King then made a lunging catch on a soft line drive up the middle, taking away a base hit.
SMU’s defense was stalwart as well, with shortstop Destiny Conerly making four plays and Vanessa Smoke adding four plays at second base. Smoke made a diving, back-hand stop on a ground ball up the middle in the bottom of the sixth, rising to her feet in time to nab the runner at first. Ebner also had a diving defensive play, deflecting the ball to Conerly who was able to gun down a runner at first. “I was focused on trying to get them to hit on top of the ball and letting my defense work,” said Leverington, who induced seven ground outs and 10 fly outs.
“Destiny gets a lot of balls hit to her, and her making plays is key for us,” Peterson said on the senior shortstop. “If we can make plays we can stay in games, and she did a really good job of getting outs for us.”
Zoey Theophilus and Ashlee Laver combined in the circle for CWU, with Theophilus allowing three runs on four hits with one strikeout and three walks in 3 2/3 innings of work. In her final collegiate appearance, Laver allowed one unearned run while striking out two and walking none in 3 1/3 innings of work.
“We talked about coming in and playing our best game today, and when we got an early lead that gave us a big boost,” said Peterson.
TOURNEY TALK: Saint Martin’s improved to 4-1 on the season against Central Washington…Friday was the seventh time the two programs met at the GNAC Championships, with SMU improving to 4-3 all-time against CWU…the Saints are in pursuit of their second GNAC Championships title, after winning the inaugural event in 2013.
