Salem, Ore. (FEB. 16) – The Central Washington University baseball team (1-3-1) traveled south for a non conference series against Corban University (2-8-1). The Wildcats downed the Warriors 8-4 in game one. Game two marked just the second tie in Head Coach Desi Story's career.
Game one started with a bang for the Wildcats. Cameron McGrath started the game with a base hit single. Justin Hampson followed by reaching on a bunt single which moved McGrath to second. Mitch Lesmeister jumped in on the action with a solid single back up the middle which scored McGrath. Hampson stole third while Lesmeister stole second on a double steal in the next at-bat and Hampson later scored on a sacrifice fly from Colton Bunt. Central ended the inning up by score of 2-0 and didn't look back the rest of the game.
Tyler Hoefer (1-0) took the mound for the Wildcats and took Central deep into the game. Hoefer went 5 and 2/3 innings giving up just 3 hits and 1 walk while racking up 5 strikeouts of the 24 batters that he faced. Newcomer Ryan Marstiller made his Wildcat debut coming out of the bullpen. After a scoreless 7th inning from Marstiller, the game entered a 45 minute rain delay. Marstiller stayed in the game following the delay. He went 3 and 1/3 innings giving up 4 runs on 4 hits but racked up 4 strikeouts.
After the game CWU Head Coach Desi Story said "We did a good job executing offensively. Got some bunts down and had some timely hitting. Our guys did a good job on the base paths and were more aggressive which is something we will need come league play. The only thing we really didn't do well was finish the game. We didn't shut the door like we should have. Our mentality has to be the same at all times no matter the score. Hoefer did great again today. We really needed that to start off the weekend."
The Wildcat offense backed Hoefer's gem by scoring runs in the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 8th innings. McGrath ended the game going 3-for-5 with a double and scored 2 of the 8 Wildcat runs. Hampson also scored 2 runs going 2-for-4 and stole two bases in the process. Lesmeister had 2 RBI's in his 2-4 day and stole a bag as well. New comer Luke Smith picked up where he left off last weekend going 1-for-1 with a double, 2 RBI's and scored a run himself. Central ended up collecting their first win of the 2019 campaign by score of 8-4.
The second game saw more rain than it did hits even with the extra innings. Connor Stevenson came out and threw yet another masterpiece for the Wildcats. He went 5 innings giving up 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 1 of the 21 batters that he faced. The Central defense racked 11 groundouts behind Stevenson's effort.
"Stevenson and Wood absolutely dominated game two today. Not only did they attack the hitters but they attacked the zone and threw a lot of strikes which is something we preach every year. It showed today that when you fill up the zone, good things happen." Coach Story said.
Cental's offense was quiet until the fourth inning when Hampson got the first Wildcat hit off of Corban's Zachary Filos. After Stevenson's five innings, AJ Wood made his second appearance on the season and picked up his team going three innings without allowing a hit and striking out 5 of the 11 batters that he faced. The 7-inning game went into extra innings after neither team's offense could scrape across a run. After the 8th inning the game entered another rain delay and was eventually called after no sign of let up. The game ended in a 0-0 tie.
"We just didn't have the offensive mentality. I think we had 6 strikeouts in the first 3 innings. Even when we did get hits we didn't do much with it. We couldn't get those guys in when we did get guys in scoring position." Said Story.
The Wildcats spend the night in Oregon and will take on Corban University for two more games tomorrow afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 11 a.m.
Looking ahead to tomorrow, Coach Story said "I expect us to continue to pitch well. We got a couple guys that can go deep in the game and our bullpen is in great shape for a weekend series."
