Baseball | 3/15/2017 4:07:00 PM

ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Mar. 15) – The Central Washington University baseball team takes on Western Oregon University in a four-game Great Northwest Athletic Conference series. 
 
Sunday's (Mar. 19) games against Western Oregon are scheduled to be played at the University of Portland.  While Monday's (Mar. 20) games will be played at Concordia University.
 
"We are ecstatic to be back outside on our own field," CWU Head Coach Desi Storey said.  "We've been lucky to have the field house, so we've been able to practice, but now we are able to get back out onto our field and take more consistent reps."
 
Central Washington stands at 9-9 overall, with a 3-5 record in GNAC play.  Dylan Freyre earned GNAC Player of the Week honors, after hitting .642 with five runs, two doubles, three homeruns, and four runs batted in against Northwest Nazarene.  He strung together three multiple hit games during the series.  Freyre leads the GNAC in batting, with 26 hits in 53 at-bats, which also ranks 14^th in Division II.  His slugging percentage of 0.830 put him 31^st in Division II.
 
The Wildcats also hold a GNAC best 3.78 ERA, 31^st in Division II.  Individually, alongside Freyre, Conor Plaisance (doubles per game, 0.50), Kyle Blankenship (saves, 3), Mackenzie Gaul (complete games, 2) and Jake Levin (games started, 6) all rank in the top 50 in Division II in their aforementioned categories.
 
Despite dropping three of four last weekend, the Wildcats still lead the GNAC in overall wins.
 
"We've talked about it before, but we need to be more consistent," Storey said.  "Whether that's on the mound, in the the field, or at the plate, we need to find more consistency on a game-to-game basis." 
 
Mackenzie Gaul earned his his third consecutive victory in as many weeks.  He threw five innings with seven strikeouts, he allowed just three runs.  Gaul leads the conference in strikeouts with 38, which is 11 more than anyone else.  He also ranks third in innings pitched with 30.
 
Western Oregon picked up three victories last weekend, before weather interrupted another weekend for the Wolves.  The Wolves are now ranked No. 8 in the NCBWA West Region Poll, the highest ranking of any GNAC team this season.
 
Justin Waken leads the Wolves' offense with a batting average of .433 and an on-base percentage of .528.  He has scored five runs and driven in four.
 
Craig Grubbe threw six shutout innings, with five strikeouts and two hits, to earn his first victory of the season last weekend.  Grubbe's 4.22 ERA is a team best.
 
Last season the Wolves took seven of eight from Central Washington, but only edged out the Wildcats by one game in the final GNAC standings for a spot in the GNAC Championships.
 
First pitch is scheduled for noon on Sunday and 11 a.m. on Monday.