Box Score (Game 1)
Box Score (Game 2)

MONMOUTH, Ore. (Mar. 5) -- Junior Brandon Wang (Mill Creek/Henry M. Jackson HS) had five of the Central Washington University baseball team's 20 hits in two games, but the Wildcats lost to host Western Oregon University, 4-3 and 5-1, on Saturday afternoon. The opening game lasted 14 innings.

The Wildcats fell to 4-6 on the season, beginning Great Northwest Athletic Conference play with a 0-2 mark. The Wolves are now 8-6, 2-0 in GNAC.

Wang accumulated four of his five hits in the opener, when he went 4 of 7 with a RBI. With a hit in each game Saturday, Wang extended his hitting streak to seven games.

In game one, Western Oregon held Central scoreless through four innings, building a 2-0 lead. However, CWU got a run in the fifth inning as junior Brett Bielec (Port Orchard/North Mason HS) reached base on a single and later scored on a fielder's choice by Jimmy Ryerson (Seattle/Roosevelt HS), cutting the Wolves' advantage in half to 2-1. The Wildcats evened the score 2-2 in the following inning, with junior Glen Reser (Spokane/Mead HS) reaching base on a fielder's choice, and a subsequent error allowed junior Derrick Webb (Ephrata) to score the tying tally.

Central took its first and only lead of the game in the seventh inning, stringing together three hits, the last of which was a RBI single by Wang that drove in Bielec. However, Western Oregon responded by scoring a run in the eighth inning to deadlock the score and force extra innings.

The Wildcats were unable to muster any runs in the extra frames, and the Wolves pieced together three hits in the bottom of the 14th inning, winning the game on a bases-loaded single.

CWU junior starting pitcher Brandon Rohde (Gig Harbor) threw 8 1/3 innings allowing eight hits, three runs (one earned) while striking out five. Senior Palmer Brown (Sacramento, Calif./Rio Americano HS) held the Wolves scoreless through five relief innings before surrendering the final run, evening his record to 1-1 on the season.

Central outhit the Wolves 16-13 in game one, and the two teams combined to strand 32 runners on base. Wang and senior Nate Wallen (Bremerton/Central Kitsap HS), who was 3 for 6 in game one, accounted for nearly half -- seven -- of the Wildcats' 16 hits.

Western Oregon jumped out to a 5-0 lead in game two, scoring one run each in the second and third innings, and tallying three runs in the fifth. Central's lone run in the nightcap came in the sixth inning, when Ryerson extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a single, and then scored on a RBI single by Reser. WOU pitcher Michael Ward held the Wildcat bats from adding any more runs, allowing just four hits in seven innings of work improving to 2-1 on the season.

WOU also got a strong offensive performance from Daniel Dillard who was 3 for 4 with two doubles, two stolen bases and three RBI in game two.

The two teams will wrap up their four-game series with another doubleheader beginning at noon on Sunday in Monmouth. CWU will then return home and make its 2011 home debut against Northwest Nazarene University next Friday (Mar. 11).