ELLENSBURG, Wash. (May 2) – The Central Washington University baseball team travels to Billings, Montana for a four-game Great Northwest Athletic Conference series against GNAC Champion Montana State University Billings.
GAME INFORMATION
Thursday DH at 1:00 PM |
Live Stats |
Live Video
Friday DH at 12:00 PM |
Live Stats |
Live Video
QUOTABLE
"It was nice to clinch last week," CWU Head Coach
Desi Storey said. "We didn't quite get the results we wanted and we have another chance this week to get things going in the right direction before the conference tournament. We need to find some consistency and play our brand of baseball."
SCOUTING MONTANA STATE BILLINGS
The Yellowjackets have had an impressive season. They are 28-14 on the season and have yet to lose a GNAC series. The Yellowjackets enter the week three wins from breaking the school record of 30 established in 2016, and are set to achieve a handful of team season records in the series against the Wildcats. MSUB enters the week tied for the school records in both doubles (103) and RBIs (325), is two sacrifice flies away from breaking the record of 25, five runs away from breaking the record of 357, and 24 total bases away from breaking the record of 781. Having already topped the program record for home runs in a season with 55 so far, the 'Jackets are eight home runs away from matching Northwest Nazarene University's GNAC record of 63 home runs established last year.
MSUB is 45-46 all-time against CWU, and has a record of 20-24 in home games against the Wildcats. MSUB has won the last two series, but CWU has taken three of the last five dating back to the start of the 2016 season.
Among the 12 major offensive stat categories, the GNAC leader is a Yellowjacket in 11 and the team has at least two players in the top-10 in all 12. There are five MSUB players in the top-10 in batting average, runs, RBIs, slugging percentage, and on-base percentage, despite MSUB playing the second-fewest games in the conference with 42 on the season.
Ryan Myers leads the 'Jackets with a .392 average, 12 homeruns, 42 runs batted in, and an on-base percentage of .560. Kaelo Johnson (.388), Jalen Garcia (.380), Kade Hall (.367), Conner Linebarger (.320), and Andrew Schleusner (.306) are all hitting above .300 and make up a sizable portion of the Yellowjackets' offensive production.
Steen Fredreickson (6-0) is undefeated on the season and holds a 3.34 ERA. In 59.1 innings, he has struck out 63 hitters and opponents are hitting just .222 against him.
GNAC STANDINGS
Entering the final week of GNAC play, the Yellowjackets sit atop the standings. Western Oregon sits in second, three games ahead of Central Washington.
The Wildcats hold a three-game advantage on Concordia for third. The Cavaliers are just a game ahead of Northwest Nazarene. The Nighthawks are just outside the playoff picture, but could make it interesting with a decent outing this weekend.
LAST TIME OUT
The Wildcats lost three of four to Western Oregon last weekend. They picked up a 5-3 win in game two.
Griffin Davis (6-5) got the win, while Jake Forrester picked up his second save of the year.
