ELLENSBURG, WASH. – The Central Washington University baseball team will be traveling to Portland Oregon this weekend for a four-game series against Concordia University. This will be the first matchup between the two Great Northwest Athletic Conference teams.
GAME INFORMATION
Saturday, March 23
DH starting @ 12:00 p.m.
Portland, OR
Concordia University
LIVE STATS
Sunday, March 24
DH starting @ 12:00 p.m.
Portland, OR
Concordia University
LIVE STATS
QUOTEABLE
"This weekend will show us a lot about who we are as a team," CWU Head Coach
Desi Storey said. "We didn't end the way we wanted too last week but it will be good to see how we respond this weekend. We did a lot of things well last weekend. Pitching did its job and we hit the ball well on the weekend as a whole. We just didn't get those key hits and sometimes that's just how it goes. I'm really excited to see how we bounce back against a good Concordia team."
SCOUTING CONCORDIA UNIVERISTY
Concordia comes into the weekend with a six and fourteen overall record with a four and eight conference record. The Cavaliers are fresh off a four-game series against Western Oregon University. Concordia lost all four games to the Wolves all of which were by five or more runs.
The Cavaliers' best hitter based on average is Eddie Vasquez. Vasquez is hitting .333 through 48 at-bats and has collected 16 hits. Another hitter to watch is Liam Knowles who is leading the team in RBIs. Knowles has collected 15 RBIs on 18 hits and is hitting at a .240 average. As a team, the Cavaliers are hitting at a .222 mark with three homeruns.
Concordia's pitching staff is spearheaded by both Kaleb Jones and Jeffery Lusink. Jones has started all six of the games that he has appeared in and is yet to collect a win on the year. The senior has pitched a team high 30.1 innings and has struck out 16 hitters on the year. Another pitcher that the Wildcats are more than likely going to see is Lusink who leads the team in strikeouts on the year. Racking up 27 strikeouts in his 26.2 innings of work in his five starts.
The two teams met four times in the regular season and split the series at four wins a piece. Concordia was later put out of the GNAC tournament by Central last year.
LAST TIME OUT
The Wildcats come into the series with a nine and ten and one overall record which includes a six and six GNAC record. Last weekend Central dropped three of the four games against Montana State University Billings. The only win coming in game one of the series.
The Wildcats bats stayed quiet until the fourth innings.
Justin Hampson doubled in the first which proved to be the only hit the Wildcats would get off of MSUB starter until the sixth inning. However, Central was able to get on the board and score in both the fourth and sixth innings.
The fourth inning started with a Hampson walk and
Mitch Lesmeister getting hit by a pitch.
Yi-Fan Pan then reached on a throwing error from the MSUB pitcher after putting down a sacrifice bunt. Pan advanced to second on the error and both Hampson and Lesmeister scored on the play.
Michael Peter later brought in Yi-Fan on a fielder's choice to give the Wildcats a 3-2 lead.
Hoefer limited the Yellow Jackets to just two in the bottom of the fourth. Heading into the top of the sixth inning, MSUB lead the Wildcats by just one run. Hampson reached on a fielding error to start the inning and was later plated by a Yi-An Pan single through the left side. Pan later scored and gave Central the lead after Peter singled up the middle for his second RBI of the game.
Montana State later tied the game in the bottom of the seventh off a wild pitch. In the top of the eight, Lesmeister continued with his hot bat and came up clutch with his second homerun of the season to give the Wildcats the lead yet again. Yi-An Pan came up a batter later and matched Lesmeister's dinger with one of his own making the Wildcat lead 7-5.
Wood and Jake Forrester were able to silence the MSUB offense in the bottom of the eighth inning. Central was able to add one more in the top of the ninth after a
Robert Ball walked and later came around to score off a
Trevor Tripoli single up the middle. Forrester was able to strike out three of the four hitters that he saw in the bottom of the ninth and collected his third save of the season. Central took game one by score of 8-5.
The Wildcats went on to lose the next three games but look to bounce back in a big way on the road this weekend.
