An evenly contested battle on day one between seventh-placed St George and eighth-placed Wests was turned on its head in one over by a Trent Copeland hat trick.
On one of the hottest days of the season, the Saints won the toss and elected to bat but found themselves in early trouble at 2-47 against a spirited Wests bowling attack.
Opener Blake Nikitaris combined with Luke Bartier to get the score to 97 before Nikitaris was caught for 34.
Vital wickets continued to tumble, but gutsy batting from Bartier (43), Trent Copeland (27) and Tom Engelbrecht (52) saw the Saints dismissed for 231 from 76.5 overs.
Skipper Nick Stapleton was a little disappointed with the total and said there was enough in the pitch to have scored more runs.
St George was left with 12 overs at a Wests batting line-up with Copeland and Peter Francis taking a wicket each which bought Wests Captain Josh Clarke to the crease.
Clarke scored 14 off 33 balls until the penultimate over of the day when Trent Copeland managed to rip one through Clarke's stumps before removing the next two batsmen for golden ducks to claim a rare hat trick.
Western Suburbs finishing the day reeling at 5-44.
Copeland finished with figures of 4-21 off six overs, saying he was pleased to contribute as a win was crucial to the Saints' hopes of making the top six.
"What will be memorable about this hat trick was that all three batsmen were left handers including Clarke who has been on fire this season," Copeland said.
Copeland now has 386 first grade wickets for St George.
