PORTLAND, ORE. – The Central Washington University baseball team (10-11-1, 7-7-0 GNAC) split the first two games on day one of the four-game series with the Concordia University Cavaliers 7-16, 5-9 GNAC).
 
The Wildcat offense was quiet until the fifth inning. Up to that point it had been a pitcher's duel. Tyler Hoefer got the start for game one of the series and pitched an absolute gem. The junior went 6.1 innings and struck out five of the 26 batters that he faced. Hoefer allowed just four hits and walked three.
 
Central's bats woke up in the top of the fifth inning. The action started with a leadoff single from Robert Ball. Colton Bunt laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Ball to second. After a walk from Trevor Tripoli, Justin Hampson smoked a ball to right center field, scoring Ball from second, and moving Tripoli to second. After the two runners moved up, Tripoli later scored on a wild pitch.
 
The game went quiet yet again until the ninth inning. Ball started the action up once again with a single up the middle on an 0-2 pitch. After Bunt drew a walk, Tripoli singled through the left side scoring Ball from second base. The Wildcats were only able to get the one in the inning. In the bottom half of the inning, the Cavaliers answered back with three runs of their own.
 
As we entered extra innings, both teams weren't able to get any runs across after some great bullpen work from JJ Asinas and Rhyse Frey. In the top of the twelfth inning, Central regained the lead. After a Mitch Lesmeister single through the left side and an intentional walk to Yi-An Pan, Yi-Fan singled to left field and a throwing error from the left fielder allowed Lesmeister to score.
 
The scoring continued in the inning after an intentional walk to Michael Peter loaded the bases, pinch hitter Jason Hill reached after the defense was unable to get Yi-An out at the plate. Following the top half of the inning, Asinas came back out for his second inning of work. He was able to get a pair of flyouts and a strikeout to take game one by score of 5-3.
 
"We are very happy to come out with the win." Said CWU Head Coach Desi Storey. "We did the little things right again and were able to capitalize and get those key hits that we needed in order to win the game. Would have liked to end it in ninth and not used more bullpen guys but we did what we had too and came away with a well fought win."
 
Game two was very similar to game one. It was a pitching duel. Connor Stevenson got the start for game two and came out and did his thing. Stevenson went on to pitch all six innings of the game and gave up just two runs (one earned run) on seven hits, striking out six, and walking just three of the 24 batters that he faced.
 
Concordia was able to get on the board first in the third inning. Payton Presley led off the inning and was hit by a pitch on the third pitch of the at-bat. After a couple sacrifice hits and a passed ball, he later came into score. The Wildcats weren't able to capitalize on the few opportunities that they had until the top of the sixth inning.
 
The inning started off with a Peter single to right field. After Colton Tuner was able to move Peter over to second on a swinging bunt down the first base line, both Ball and Bunt drew walks. Tripoli then came up and reached on a fielder's choice allowing Peter to score from third tying the game at one.
 
The game didn't stay tied long as Concordia came back and scored one more run in the bottom of the sixth inning to re-take the lead. Central was shut down in the top of the seventh giving the Cavaliers the win in game two.
 
"We didn't carry over that timely hitting that we had in game one." Said Coach Storey. "We weren't able to get the runs in when we had guys in scoring position and that hurt us at the end. With that being said, Connor did a great job once again. He went all six which was huge for our bullpen and he really filled up the strike zone and gave us a very good chance to win game two. Hopefully tomorrow we can grab those key hits and Brooks and French both give us good outings."
 
The Wildcats are back in action tomorrow for the second half of the four-game series in Portland. Game three of the series will start at 12:00 p.m.