Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Unlike any team in any GNAC sport, Western Oregon has dominated baseball since the conference was founded.

The Wolves will be gunning for their 11th consecutive GNAC title (and their 12th overall) this spring and once again arethe pre-season favorite.

But, by the smallest margin in the history of the annual poll.

The Wolves received three of the five first-place votes and narrowly edged Northwest Nazarene by one point in the balloting.

Montana State Billings, which finished fourth last year, earned a No. 3 ranking in the poll, while last year's runner-ups Saint Martin's fell to fourth in the coaches' projections leaving Central Washington in fifth.

Western Oregon – on paper – appears well positioned to win yet another title as it returns six all-stars, including five 2011 first team selections.

Among that group is the best 1-2 pitching combo in the GNAC in Kirk Lind and Grady Wood who combined for a 15-5 record last season and ranked first (1.53) and third (2.32) in earned run average.

Wood was selected theGNAC Pitcher-of-the-Year, a discussion that Lind was also involved in.

Also returning as first team all-conference selections for the Wolves are outfielder Bo Folkinga, third baseman Griff Boyd and relief pitcher Ian MacDougall.

WOU's five first team selections matches the total from the other four conference schools combined.

Northwest Nazarene has three including 2011 batting champion andGNAC Freshman of the YearLogan Parker (.383), pitcher-outfielder Sean McDonald and first baseman Derek Bettinson.

The only other two returning first team players from the 2011 season are Central Washington third baseman Glen Reser and Montana State Billings shortstop Colby Robison.

Robison finished fourth in the conference in hitting (.335) and is one of four returnees among last year's Top 10 behind Parker, Folkinga (.375) who finished second and McDonald who ranked eighth (.321).

Among last year's pitchers, seven of the 12 who had ERAs below 4.00 are back include Lind, McDonald (1.70), Wood, Tommy DeBoer (2.67) and Nate O'Bryan (3.22) of Saint Martin's, Brandon Rohde (3.35) of Central Washington and Brian Hutchings (3.86) of Montana State Billings.

The conference season will begin Mar. 9-11 as Northwest Nazarene travels to Monmouth to play Western Oregon Friday and Saturday in a four-game series matching the top two poll finishers.

Meanwhile, Montana State Billings will travel to Saint Martin's for a four-game series on Saturday and Sunday. Central Washington gets the first week bye before opening its 32-game conference slate on Mar. 17-18 at home against Saint Martin's.

Non-conference play begins this week as Saint Martin's opens a four-game series Friday at Cal Poly Pomona and Western Oregon travels to San Diego for a four-game series with perennial West Region power UC San Diego.

Central Washington makes its season debut Wednesday, Feb. 8 at San Francisco State, while Northwest Nazarene opens its season at home with a four-game series Feb. 10-11 with Minot State.

MSU Billings starts its season a week later debuting Feb. 17-19 with a four-game series at Colorado State – Pueblo.