ELLENSBURG, Wash.- The Central Washington University softball team travels to Nampa, Idaho this weekend to face Northwest Nazarene University in a four-game series that will determine who sits atop the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings. The Wildcats currently hold a two-game lead over NNU who sits in second place in the standing.
GNAC STANDINGS
GAME INFO
Central Washington at Northwest Nazarene | Friday, April 13 | 2 & 4 p.m.
Central Washington at Northwest Nazarene| Saturday, April 14 | 12 & 2 p.m.
LAST WEEKEND
The Wildcats won three of their four games last weekend against Western Washington and Simon Fraser. Against the Vikings, freshman infielder
Alycia Bannan hit a two-run homerun in the top of the eighth inning, which proved to be the game winning hit for the Central as they defeated Western Washington 5-3 in Friday's opener.
Against SFU, sophomore third baseman
Savannah Egbert hit a game-winning two-run single in the top of the ninth inning as the CWU softball team defeated the Clan, 8-7, in the second game to secure the two-game sweep.
100 and COUNTING
CWU Head Coach
Mike Larabee won his 100
th career game for the Wildcats this past weekend, making him the fastest CWU coach to reach 100 wins, accomplishing the task in 141 games.
ONE MORE SB FOR RJ
Junior outfielder
Rachael Johnson is one stolen base away from breaking the CWU school record of 45 held by both Johnson and Michela Hazlett. Johnson is second on the team in stolen bases this season, swiping 13 in 13 attempts.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
The Wildcats lead the GNAC when it comes to on base percentage (.394), stolen bases (59), runs scored (6.15/game), and RBIs (5.33/game), as well as ERA at 2.93. Individually,
Savannah Egbert ranks second in the conference and 18
th nationally in batting average at .486. Egbert also lead the conference with 23 stolen bases.
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
Northwest Nazarene
2018 Record: 19-18, 10-6 GNAC
Last Weekend: The Nighthawks went 3-1 in their four-game set with Western Oregon. The Nighthawks outscored the wolves 29 to 19 aided by a 7-0 shutout in game three. Jordan Adams picked up all three of the NNU wins last weekend giving up just two runs in 17.1 innings of work.
Top Hitter: The Nighthawks have a fairly balanced offensive production, with five batters hitting over .300 on the season. Junior infielder Cassidy Fifield leads the team with a .391 batting average and ranks second with a slugging percentage of .609. Sophomore Brittany Genuardi has the third-best on base percentage in the conference (.504) and leads the team with six homeruns on the season. As a team, NNU currently leads the conference in batting average (.324), slugging percentage (.483), runs scored (208), hits (337), and RBIs (195).
Top Pitcher: Jordan Adams has proven to be the go to option for the Nighthawks with a GNAC-leading ERA of 1.64 this season. Adams also limits opposing batters to just a .211 clip and has a win-loss percentage of .706 (12-5).
