MONMOUTH, ORE. – The Central Washington University baseball team (14-20-1, 11-17), traveled south to take on the Western Oregon University Wolves (19-10, 17-10) for a four-game series. The Wolves nearly took both games on the day, but Mother Nature intervened in game two.
WOU jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead after two Wolves runners ran on a double steal to move to second and third. Griffey Halle then singled to left field which brought in two runners. The Wildcats were able to answer back in the top of the second inning with two runs of their own.
Jesse Unger led the inning off by reaching on a throwing error from the WOU third baseman. Two batters later, Yi-fan Pan reached on a double to right center field moving Unger to third base.
Robert Ball then came up with two outs in the inning and singled to center field which brought in both Unger and Pan. After two innings of play, the score was knotted at two runs.
Both offenses went quiet for the next three innings and it wasn't until the sixth inning both teams were able to bring in a couple more runs. The top of the sixth started with
Mitch Lesmeister reaching on a throwing error. After a sacrifice bunt from
Jason Hill moved Lesmeister to second,
Justin Hampson was able to reach on a wild pitch after striking out. With Lesmeister at third base, Unger flied out to right field for the first run of the inning.
Jaden Hassell was then able to single to the left side to give the Wildcats two base runners.
Pan then came up and doubled for the second time in the game this time to left field scoring both Hassell and Hampson. After five and a half innings of play, the Wildcats led 5-2. WOU came back and added two runs of their own to make it a one-run ball game with three innings left of play.
After tying the game in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Wolves added one more in the bottom of the eighth inning to give them a one run lead. Halle was able to score on a sacrifice fly to the second baseman to give WOU their final run needed to take game one of the series.
"I thought that we played pretty well for the most part." CWU Head Coach
Desi Storey said. "Tyler did a good job holding down a pretty explosive offense to just one hit through five plus innings. Today it was just some little things that didn't go our way. The other thing is that we can't strike out eight times in a game and expect to win still. We have to have better two strike approaches and have to try and at least put the ball in play and make them make the play."
Game two started out quietly as both teams' pitchers were able to work two scoreless innings to start the game. Central jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the third inning. Lesmeister was able to reach on a one out base hit and then stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by the WOU catcher. Lesmeister scored two batters later after a balk was called on the Wolves pitcher.
The lead didn't last long however as the Wolves answered back with a run of their own in the bottom of the third inning. A Connor McCord sac fly was able to bring in Collin Runge for the Wolves first run of the game. WOU continued to add runs to their total as the game went on including two runs in both the fifth and sixth innings.
In the top of the seventh, the game was called due to rain and will resume tomorrow morning before game three of the series. When play is picked up tomorrow, the Wildcats will have
Justin Hampson on second base as he walked and then advanced on a wild pitch. Unger will be hitting and Hassell will be on deck. The Wolves currently lead by score of 5-1 with nobody out in the top of the seventh inning. First pitch part two will take place at 11:30 a.m.
Games three and four will be played afterward.
