ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Apr. 26) – The Central Washington University baseball team travels to Monmouth, Oregon for a four=game Great Northwest Athletic Conference series against Western Oregon University.
GAME INFORMATION
Saturday DH at noon |
Live Stats
Sunday DH at noon |
Live Stats
QUOTABLE
"We've got eight games left and we are in a pretty good spot," CWU Head Coach
Desi Storey said. "We control our own destiny. We need to play to our capabilities this weekend and play consistent. Western Oregon is a good team, so they'll be a challenge for us."
SCOUTING WESTERN OREGON
The Wolves are coming off an 11-2 loss to Lewis-Clark State College on Wednesday (Apr. 25). The loss moved WOU to 19-16 on the season with a conference record of 19-12. Currently, the Wolves are in second place in the GNAC behind Montana State Billings.
The Warriors scored in every inning from the fifth on in the non-conference matchup on Wednesday, while the wolves managed only two runs in the bottom of the sixth.
Leading the Wolves offensively with an average of .339 is Jared McDonald. The junior catcher has swatted six big flies and driven in 17. Behind the dish, McDonald has thrown out 60 percent of would-be base stealers.
Connor McCord leads the Wolves in both homeruns (7) and runs batted in (34), while hitting at a clip of .314. Nyles Nygaard is just under the .300 mark at .283 but has driven in 31 and hit six homeruns.
The Wolves are hitting .290 as a team with 29 dingers, 194 runs batted in, 208 runs scored, and 99 total extra base hits.
On the mound, Alex Roth and Jacob Fricke has combined for a 6-1 record and four combined shutouts. Roth has an earned run average of 1.84 to go along with 49 strikeouts in 44 innings of work. Fricke, meanwhile, has a 2.34 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 34.2 innings.
As a unit, the Wolves have an ERA of 4.22 and 230 strikeouts.
GNAC STANDINGS UPDATE
Montana State Billings (25-7) still leads the GNAC, and the Yellowjackets earned the sixth spot in the first NCAA Regional Poll, while Western Oregon (19-12) slipped back into second place in the GNAC after the Wildcats (18-14) held it only momentarily.
The Wildcats are up three and a half games on Concordia (14-17), who sits in fourth. Behind the Cavaliers is Northwest Nazarene (12-20). A strong weekend from either Concordia or Northwest Nazarene could drastically change the playoff picture at the four and five spots.
The Nighthawks play at Concordia today and Friday.
LAST TIME OUT
The Wildcats took three of four from Northwest Nazarene last weekend, including putting up double digits in games one and two.
Mackenzie Gaul and
JJ Asinas combined to hold the Nighthawks to just two runs in game two.
Seth Pedersen tossed a complete game and allowed just two runs, on four hits, in game four.
Michael Peter launched his first homerun of the season and drove in three runs in the series' final game.
Ty Deckwa hit .438 (7-16) in the series with one double, five runs batted in, a slugging percentage of .500, one stolen base, and a myriad of plays defensively that could populate nearly an entire Top 10 list.
