PORTLAND, Ore. (May 11) – The Central Washington University baseball team was eliminated from the 2017 Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships by Northwest Nazarene in a 7-3 contest.
 
The Crusaders jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first on a single in the first by Andrew Helmstadter.  Casey Sheehan later scored on a throwing error.
 
In the second inning, Sheehan singled up the middle to drive home Kyle Redford and Jarod Gonzales for a 4-0 advantage.
 
Sheehan struck again for the Crusaders in the fourth.  He once again singled and drove in Colton McCluskey.
 
The Wildcats got on the board in the fifth on a sacrifice fly from Christopher Dalto, scoring Jake Levin.
 
Sheehan doubled home McCluskey in the sixth, before Brett Nielsen singled to right center to drive Sheehan in.
 
Trailing 7-1 in the seventh, Dalto walked with the bases loaded cutting the deficit to 7-2.  Kyle Stahl then walked, forcing another run home.  The Wildcats did not find a way to rectify the deficit and fell 7-3.
 
"I'm proud of our guys," CWU Head Coach Desi Storey said.  "We fought every step of the way.  All year we battled and it was no different today.  We came up short, but we battled.  You look at where we were picked in the preseason poll, where people thought we would finish, and we fought and battled to get back into the tournament.  Now we start looking towards next year and taking another step forward."
 
Griffin Davis (4-3) was charged with the loss.  Seth Pederson hurled 4.2 innings of relief.  He allowed three hits, two earned runs, one walk, and he struck out six hitters. 
 
The Wildcats finished the 2017 campaign at 30-23 and 23-17 in GNAC play.