Baseball | 4/5/2017 12:29:00 PM

ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Apr. 5) – The Central Washington University baseball team travels to Concordia University for a four-game Great Northwest Athletic Conference series.
 
Central and Concordia must first finish their series finale from Ellensburg on Friday (Apr. 7).  That game will resume in the bottom of the third inning with Michael Heinevetter on second base.  The Wildcats trail 3-0 and Seth Pederson will resume on the mound in the top of the fourth.
 
"It's extra innings we need to come up with, so hopefully Pedey can help turn us around for the rest of weekend," CWU Head Coach Desi Storey said.  "We are only down three with five at-bats to get back into it.  We want to get something done with Heinevetter at second, so it would be nice to climb back pretty quick."
 
The Wildcats took all three games that were completed against Concordia in Ellensburg.  Friday's start time is 6 pm at Porter Park.
 
The Cavaliers have to make-up a game against Western Oregon at Porter Park on Wednesday (Apr. 5) before Friday's matchup against the Wildcats.
 
The Wildcats were the only team to do better than split in GNAC play last week, taking three of four games against Montana State Billings to remain the GNAC leader in overall wins with a 14-11 record.
 
Jake Levin threw his first complete game of the season to earn the win in the series opener against Montana State Billings with seven strikeouts and three runs allowed, two earned, on five hits and three walks. Levin also got it done at the plate, going 8 for 14 with a grand slam and walk-off solo home run among his three home runs.


Levin now leads the conference in ERA (1.73) and ranks second in batting average (.360). He has thrown a GNAC-best 52 innings and struck out 34 batters.  He earned GNAC Pitcher of the Week honors for the second time this season.
 
Central Washington leads the GNAC individually in every major category in both pitching and hitting. Dylan Freyre leads the league in batting average by a large margin at .441. Runs batted in and home runs are the only categories that the Wildcats don't lead individually, but they rank third in both of those categories as a team.
 
Concordia earned a split at home against Saint Martin's last week, winning the final game of the series 5-3 behind an excellent pitching performance by Scot Schepige.   Schepige faced 21 consecutive batters without allowing a hit before Saint Martin's tacked on three runs in the final frame of the game.
 
"I think the big thing is adjusting to their pitching," Storey noted.  "We need to be more consistent and hopefully it carries on from what we have done the past couple weeks.  We need to get good pitches and try not to do too much."
 
The Cavaliers' offense snapped out of a slump in the series against Saint Martin's, scoring at least five runs in all four games after failing to score at least five runs in the previous six games.
 
First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday (Apr. 8) and noon on Sunday (Apr. 9).