LACEY – Pacific Lutheran's offense erupted for eight runs in the final three innings and AJ Konopaski tied the PLU single-season record for saves as the Lutes earned a 10-5 nonconference baseball win over Saint Martin's Tuesday afternoon at SMU Baseball Field.

The Lutes' win improved their record to 19-13, while Saint Martin's fell to 10-25. The Lutes head to Oregon this weekend for a three-game Northwest Conference series against Lewis & Clark on Friday and Saturday before wrapping up the weekend with a Sunday afternoon makeup game against Willamette.

Kort Skoda pitched the first five innings for the Lutes, limiting the Saints to one earned run on five hits before Cory Nelson took over. Nelson pitched the next two innings and picked up his second win of the season. Konopaski took over with one out in the bottom of the eighth and picked up the final five outs of the game to earn the save. With 11 saves this season, Konopaski leads all of NCAA Div. III and tied Aaron Roetcisoender's 2004 program record. He now has 11 saves and two wins out of the Lutes' 19 wins this year.

Kory Vanderstaay led PLU with three hits and drove in two runs, while Casey Dawes tallied two hits and three runs batted in. Kit Banko, Curtis Wildung and Ben Welch all also finished with two hits, and Shawn Abe scored three runs in PLU's win.

Saint Martin's got on the board first, scoring a run in the third, but the Lutes tied it in the top of the fourth. Wildung led off with a single, stole second and scored on Welch's single up the middle. The Saints took the lead again in the bottom of the fourth, but PLU tied it in the sixth after Collin Nilson doubled, reached third on a wild pitch and scored on an SMU error.

The final three innings featured eight runs by the Lutes and three for the Saints. Abe reached on an error, Drew Oord walked and Dawes singled to drive Abe in from second. Wildung and Vanderstaay followed with consecutive RBI singles, and the Lutes had the bases loaded with one out before the Saints induced a pair of infield popups to end the inning.

The Lutes added two more in the top of the eighth. Abe opened the inning with an infield single, and Banko singled to put two runners on. One out later, Dawes singled to bring home the first run of the inning, and Vanderstaay's second RBI single in as many innings made it 7-2.

Saint Martin's put five hits together in the eighth to score three runs and pull within 7-5 before Konopaski came in with one out and the bases loaded and got a double play to end the threat. PLU got those three runs back in the bottom of the ninth. Welch singled to begin the inning, and Abe walked and Banko was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Nicholas Hall singled to bring in the first run and Dawes drove in the next run on a fielder's choice. The Lutes' final run scored on SMU's fifth error of the day, and Konopaski retired the Saints in order in the bottom of the inning to close out the win.