Thursday, April 16, 2015

PORTLAND, Ore. –    Saint Martin’s is ranked sixth and Western Washington is ranked 10th in the inaugural NCAA Division II West Regional softball poll of the 2015 season.

The poll will eventually determine which five at-large teams join the GNAC, PacWest and CCAA champions in the eight-team regional tournament in May.

If the three conference champions all wind up in the top eight in the final poll, the top eight teams will advance to the regional tournament, which will be divided into two four-team sub-regionals.

Dixie State, which is the defending West Regional champion, is the No. 1 ranked team in the inaugural poll followed by Cal State Monterey Bay, Humboldt State, Sonoma State and Cal Baptist.

Saint Martin’s (32-16, 12-4), which hosts defending GNAC champion Western Oregon (18-23, 10-6) Friday and Central Washington (18-17, 9-7) Saturday, currently has a 1 ½ game lead over Western Washington (24-16, 13-7) and Montana State Billings (23-18, 13-7) in the GNAC race.

Western Oregon is in fourth place, two games back of the Saints and one game ahead of fifth-place Central Washington as five teams compete for the GNAC’s four berths in the conference tournament which will be played April 30-May 2 at Yakima, Wash.

The winner of the tournament will earn the GNAC’s automatic berth in the NCAA West Regionals.

West Region – 1. Dixie State (38-6); 2. Cal State Monterey Bay (37-9); 3. Humboldt State (36-10); 4. Sonoma State (31-14); 5. Cal Baptist (36-9); 6. Saint Martin’s (24-13); 7. Chico State (20-16); 8. Hawaii Hilo (28-16); 9. Cal State East Bay (23-20); 10. Western Washington (224-16).

CWU’s Campbell Ranks 10th in RBIs

Central Washington first baseman Kailyn Campbell ranks 10th in RBIs in this week’s NCAA Division II national statistical report.

Campbell is averaging 1.31 RBI per contest.  In total RBIs, she ranks 24th  with 46, two fewer than Taviah Jenkins of Saint Martin’s who ranks 19th  with 48.  SMU has played 13 more games than CWU.

The highest ranked GNAC players this week are Aubrey Conceicao of Montana State Billings and Alicia Fine of Western Washington.  They are tied for sixth in sacrifice flies with five each.

Saint Martin’s Dani Wall is eighth in fewest strikeouts, fanning just once in every 71 official at bats.

In team categories, Western Oregon ranks seventh in double plays per game (0.54).  MSUB leads the GNAC and ranks 19th in Division II in batting with a .344 average.  Saint Martin’s 20th with a .339 team batting average.

Team Notes

Central Washington:  Kailyn Campbell and Austin Wilkerson will take three-game homer streaks into CWU’s Saturday’s doubleheader at Saint Martin’s.  The GNAC record is four.  CWU was idle last week after posting a 1-3 record in a series the previous week at Billings.

Montana State Billings:  Shortstop Taylor Hoke battled .667 (8-of-12) as the Yellowjackets swept a four-game series at Northwest Nazarene, rallying from a 7-0 deficit to win Game 3 by a score of 13-7.   Cameron Cassinelli batted .545 (6-of-11) and also walked four times.  She drove in seven runs.  Brittney Sanders and Kelsey Devlin had nine and eight RBI.  In the circle Jessyka MacDonald allowed just one run in eight innings recording two victories.

Northwest Nazarene: Ashley Pesek batted .462 (6-of-13) and had two home runs, including a grand slam, in a four-game home series with MSU Billings.  She had six of the Crusaders’ 18 RBI.  Kiahna Brown hit .455 with five hits in 11 at bats.  Gatalina Schuster hit .300 (3-of-10) and drive in five runs.

Saint Martin’s:  Sam Munger had 12 hits in 23 at bats and extended her hitting streak to a GNAC season-best 17 games.  She now has two of the six longest streaks  in GNAC history, including a 26-game streak over her sophomore (25 games) and junior (1 game) seasons.  Taviah Jenkins had 10 hits in 23 at bats and drove in 13 runs as the Saints won four of six games, sweeping home-and-home twinbills with Simon Fraser before losing twice at Western Washington.

Simon Fraser:   Taylor Lundrigan accounted for 18 percent of the Clan’s hits (11 of 61) during an eight-game week.  Lundrigan, who had five of her team’s 10 doubles, batted .393.  Stefanie Sheard led Simon Fraser with seven of her team’s 27 RBIs. 

Western Oregon: Kelsie Gardner had 11 hits in 16 at bats as the Wolves won three of four games on a trip to Bellingham and Burnaby.  Gardner also drove in seven runs, a number matched by Emma Alfonso.  Destiny Kuehl had eight hits in 10 at bats as the Wolves scored 39 runs batting at a .389 clip.  In the circle, Jourdan Williams posted two victories.  At the plate Lexi Jennings hit two home runs.

Western Washington:  Alexie Levin batted .471 as the Vikings won five of six games, sweeping twinbills with Simon Fraser and Saint Martin’s and dividing two games with Western Oregon.  Levin hit three home runs and drove in 11 runs.  Makinlee Sellevold won four games, posting a 2.41 ERA.

GNAC Players of the Week

Player - Alexie Levin, Western Washington (OF-DH, 5-7, Jr., Everett, WA) and Destiny Kuehl, Western Oregon (3B, 5-8, So., Portland, OR – David Douglas) … Levin hit three home runs and drove in 11 runs as the Vikings won five of six games, including a sweep of first-place Saint Martin’s Sunday to move within one game of the Saints in the conference standings.  Levin had eight hits, including a pair of doubles, in 17 at bats.  She also drew four walks … Western Washington’s lone loss during the week came against Western Oregon as the Wolves earned a split of a doubleheader with an 8-5 victory Saturday.  WOU’s key hit in that win was a two-run home run by Kuehl extending a 6-5 lead to 8-5.  In four games including a sweep of Simon Fraser Sunday, Kuehl had eight hits in 10 at bats, scored seven runs and drove in four. 

Pitcher – Makinlee Sellevold, Western Washington (5-4, Fr., Everett, WA - Cascade) posted four victories to improve her season record to 19-7.  She allowed 21 hits in 29 innings, walking nine and fanning 12.  Sellevold, who leads the GNAC in victories, finished the week with a 4-0 record and a 2.41 earned run average.

GNAC SOFTBALL WEEKLY