ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Mar. 4) – The Central Washington University baseball took both ends of its Great Northwest Athletic Conference opening doubleheader with scores of 8-6 and 8-7.  The Wildcats are now 6-4 on the season and 2-0 in the GNAC.  The Yellowjackets fall to 6-5 and 0-2 in the GNAC.
 
"Those are two big wins to start off the conference season," CWU Head Coach Desi Storey said afterward. 
 
In the first game the Wildcats opened the scoring with a double down the right field line from Dylan Freyer, scoring Kyle Stahl, in the second inning.
 
Central extended its lead to 2-0 in the third.  Ryan Atkinson laid down a bunt single, but a throwing error on the play allowed Christopher Dalto to score.
 
A Reid Martinez single later in the third brought home Atkinson and Darren Honeysett, giving the Wildcats a 4-0 lead.
 
The Yellowjackets cut the deficit to two in the fourth inning.  Colter Sternhagen doubled to bring Kevin Toon, then Landon Peterson brought Adam Cox in to score.
 
Martinez hit a sacrifice fly to center in the sixth, scoring Dalto and giving the Wildcats a 5-3 advantage. 
 
The Wildcats offense wasn't quite done.  Randy Fuller hit an opposite field solo home run in the seventh inning, extending the gap to 6-3.
 
Montana State Billings responded with a two-run home run in the top of the eight from Cox.  It was followed by Sternhagen scoring on a fielding error, levelling the score at 6-6.
 
Jake Levin came through for the Wildcats in the bottom half of the eighth.  With the infield drawn close, Levin laced a single up the middle, scoring both Martinez and Atkinson.
 
"The guys have been doing these types of things," Storey said of Levin's clutch hit.  "Obviously it gave us the two runs we needed, but it's something we have seen from them before."
 
CJ Gettman closed the door, earning his second save.  Kyle Blankenship (1-0) went 4.1 innings in relief for the win. 
 
"Kyle came in and did a fantastic job shutting MSUB down," Storey added. "He got us deep so we could get to the back end of our bullpen."
 
The Wildcats scored at least once in each of the first five innings during the second game.
 
Martinez and Fuller recorded RBI singles in the first inning.  Martinez then picked up another RBI single in the second.
 
Ryan Malone scored Justin Adams with a sac fly in the third, before Adams singled home a run in the fourth.  Freyer recorded an RBI single in the fourth as well.
 
In the fifth inning, Martinez struck again, bringing home both Dalto and Malone with a double.
 
Levin (2-0) went six innings and allowed three runs, two earned, on five hits.  He racked up six strikeouts.  Travis Cook recorded his first save of the season, putting out a fire in the seventh inning that allowed four Yellowjackets to cross the plate.
 
The Wildcats combined for 23 hits in both games.
 
"We had been working on it all week," Storey added.  "We've been a little anxious before this week and today we stayed back and saw good pitches."
 
Martinez finished the twin bill 5-for-7 and seven RBI.
 
"That's fantastic production," Storey noted. "Obviously it'd be great if he could keep that up."
 
Central is back in action tomorrow (Mar. 5) against Montana State University Billings in a GNAC doubleheader.  First pitch is scheduled for noon.