Baseball | 4/14/2015 12:37:00 PM

ELLENSBURG, Wash (April 14) -- The Central Washington University baseball team is facing its most important series of the season as they have found themselves on the outside of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) playoff picture.  The baseball team will trek to Nampa, Idaho for a four game series with Northwest Nazarene this weekend starting April 17 at 2 p.m. PST. 

The Wildcats trail NNU in the standings and have an opportunity to make up some ground against the Crusaders in this weekend. Central Washington carries an 18-21 record overall and 9-15 mark in conference play, while NNU is 22-18 overall and 11-9 in the GNAC.
The reigning GNAC Tournament champions were in second place at this point last season, but injuries and errors have plagued CWU so far, but they still have a chance to snag a spot at the GNAC tournament.

Head Coach Desi Story emphasized how important this series is if the Wildcats want to shake up the standings with two conference series' remaining.

"If we don't win three games, we're putting ourselves in a bad spot," he said. "It's do or die, it's extremely important."

Despite dropping three games in Billings last weekend, the Wildcats have eight remaining conference games with NNU and Saint Martin's, who they are sandwiched between in the GNAC standings. Last time these teams met, the Wildcats took three games from the Crusaders.
Central Washington will also need some help from NNU down the road; NNU wraps up their schedule with two road series at Western Oregon (WOU) and Montana State Billings (MSUB), the first and second place teams, respectively. Two series wins for the Wildcats and help from WOU and MSUB might be the push they need to propel themselves into the GNAC Tournament for the third consecutive season.

Northwest Nazarene has balance offensively and on the mound. Josh Hatfield, Tyler Davis and Andrew Helmstadter are the Crusaders three leading hitters and have combined for 11 homeruns, 38 doubles and 77 RBIs.

Senior Jake Reppert has been a workhorse on the mound, sporting a GNAC-best 1.88 ERA and is tied for second in wins (5). In a meeting earlier this season, the Wildcats tagged Reppert for eight runs, six of which were earned. Until that meeting, Reppert had been on a streak of not allowing a run, earned or unearned, in his first four outings of the season.

Central Washington hopes to continue their hitting ways as they hit .294 as a team and boast the GNAC's two of the GNAC's top four hitters in Kasey Bielec (.396) and Darren Honeysett (.386). In Ellensburg earlier this season, the Wildcat's scored 28 runs on Crusaders pitching.

The Wildcats have had no trouble scoring runs all season, the true test will be if the pitching staff can keep the team in the game and if the defense can back them up in the field.

You can view live stats and video of this weekends contests at Wildcatsports.com