Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Mar. 23) -- The Central Washington baseball team won game one of its doubleheader with Montana State Billings 5-3 behind a strong pitching performance from Stuart Fewel (Portland, OR, Wilson), but a big first inning rally in game two by the Yellowjackets resulted in a series split as the Wildcats lost 10-3.

Central Washington has earned a split in its last two Great Northwest Athletic Conference series and now sits with a record of 10-11, 5-7 in the GNAC. MSUB is now 6-18 on the season, 5-10 in conference.

Fewel picked up his second win of the season (2-2) throwing 7 1/3 innings allowing eight hits and three earned runs while striking out six batters.  Cory Welch (Las Vegas, NV, Bishop Gorman) pitched the final inning and two-thirds to earn his fourth save of the season.

The Wildcats took an early 5-0 lead scoring one run in the opening inning and four more in the third.  Justen Weigel (Naches, WA, Naches Valley) got the scoring started with an RBI single in the first inning playing Welch who reached on an infield single earlier in the inning.

The CWU offense erupted in the fourth inning scoring four runs on six hits, three of which came on RBI singles by Kasey Bielec (Port Orchard, WA, North Mason), Ethan Sterkel (Ellensburg, WA, Ellensburg) and Zach Reay (Blackfoot, ID, Blackfoot).

The trio of Bielec, Sterkel, Welch and Reay each compiled two hits in the opener with Bielec, Sterkel and Welch extending their hitting streaks to four, seven and nine games respectively.

Game two got off to a rocky start for the Wildcats and starting pitcher Kurtis Pitcher (Seabeck, WA, Klahowya).  The Yellowjackets compiled five hits and eight runs as Pitcher only lasted one-third of an inning surrendering four runs.

MSUB continued to add to their 8-0 advantage by scoring two more runs in the third inning to take a commanding 10-0 lead.  The Wildcats chipped away at the lead scoring two runs in the fourth inning with Bielec and Sterkel each recording RBI's in the inning.  Central Washington added one more in the fifth inning on sacrifice fly by Bielec scoring Weigel from third base.

Kevin Toon highlighted the Yellowjacket offense in the nightcap going 3-for-5 with three RBI and a run scored.  Brad Birch also added some runs with a long two-run homerun over the center field wall in the first inning.

Central Washington will not get any days off as they host Oregon Tech this Monday and Tuesday with single games starting at Noon.