ELLENSBURG, WASH. – The Central Washington University baseball team will be on the road for yet another home Great Northwest Athletic Conference series. The Wildcats will play a four-game series against Western Oregon University at Bellevue Community College due to weather conditions in Ellensburg (snow). The four games got moved to a Sunday/Monday double header rather than a Saturday/Sunday double header. The two teams come into the weekend in a three-way tie for first place early on in the year.
GAME INFORMATION
Sunday, March 10 | DH starting at 1:00 p.m. | Bellevue CC
Monday, March 11 | DH starting at 1:00 p.m. | Bellevue CC
LIVE STATS
QUOTEABLE
"We had a good weekend last weekend. We did a lot of things right and executed for the most part. We still have some stuff to work on and still need some more guys out of the bullpen to step up and throw strikes when they get their number called." CWU Head Coach
Desi Storey said. "Our starters have given us good games for the most part and we really capitalized on that last weekend. We were able to do the little things right and get bunts down when we needed to put ourselves in the best possible position to score runs. We need to capitalize more offensively, be more consistent at the plate and give our pitchers some breathing room."
SCOUTING WESTERN OREGON
Western Oregon comes into the weekend off of a three and one weekend against Montana State University Billings including a come from behind walk-off thriller in game three of the series.
The Wolves have five hitters that hold a batting average of .300 or higher. Jared McDonald leads the team with a .500 mark. McDonald has nine hits on eighteen at-bats including two homeruns (team high) and one triple. He also has a team high 10 RBIs. McDonald has started all six games that he has appeared in and is a staple in the Wolves lineup.
Collin Runge is another threat in the lineup. He has a .333 batting average which consists of eight hits in 24 at-bats. Runge has also started all six games that he has played in. Runge has also accounted for eight runs which is tied for a team high and is two for two in stolen bases making him just as big of a weapon on the base path as in the batter's box.
Alex Roth is the Wolves ace and will more than likely start game one of the series for Western Oregon. Roth has a team high ten innings pitched and has only allowed one run on six hits and walked three of the 38 batters that he has faced. He has also racked up 16 batters.
Another pitcher that the Wildcats will see is Jacob Fricke. Fricke has also started two games and has pitched eight innings. He has struck out ten batters, three of which were looking, and allowed six runs.
LAST TIME OUT
Central Washington is also coming off of a three and one weekend series against Saint Martin's University. The Wildcat's wins came from a combination of timely hitting and great starting pitching.
Tyler Hoefer got the nod for game one of the series and started the game putting down the first seven batters that he faced. On the other side of the ball, the Wildcat offense was able to scrape across two runs in the second inning.
Game two was dominated by
Connor Stevenson for the first five innings. Stevenson sat down the first 15 batters that he saw. Going into the sixth inning, Stevenson was well in command with a two-run lead. Central scored in the second inning after Bunt started off the inning with a ground rule double and later came around to score, and then again in the third when Mitchell Lesmeister singled and came around to score on a defensive error.
On Sunday, the Wildcats struggled in game one.
The Saints led 6-0 in the bottom of the fourth when
Justin Hampson set the Wildcat offense in motion. Hampson led off the inning with a single through the right side. He'd advance to second on a stolen base.
Yi-Fan Pan smashed a ground ball to the third basemen, grounding out on the play. As the third baseman threw the ball, Hampson broke for third base. The Saints' first basemen committed a throwing error, allowing Hampson to score on the play. The Saints added a run in the eighth and ninth. The Wildcats couldn't mount a comeback and dropped game one.
Game two belonged to
Hunter French. French started and finished the game on the mound for the Wildcats. French pitched seven innings, striking out 10 batters. He allowed just three hits, one earned run while walking no one.
The Wildcats plated three runs in the bottom of the second inning of game two.
Jesse Unger was on third base when a two out single from
Jon Pinto plated Unger. Next up was Peter, who smashed a two-run home run over the right centerfield fence. The Wildcats owned a 3-1 lead after two innings.
Central went on to take game two of the day by score of five to one.
