Thursday, March 5, 2015

PORTLAND, Ore. – Western Oregon took three of four from Saint Martin’s in the first series win of conference play to take an early lead in the GNAC standings.

The Wolves, who have won five of their last seven after starting the year 2-11, allowed the Saints to score only six runs in four games.

Four WOU pitchers threw at least three frames and three strikeouts being led by Darren Moran and Jesse Pratt. Moran pitched eight innings of one-hit ball while Pratt went six with six strikeouts. Each recorded a win as well.

The Monmouth natives hit five doubles and three home runs in the series while scoring 14 runs. The Wolves offense has outscored their opponents 29-18 the past seven games.

While WOU took three of four from the Saint Martin’s, the Saints got the last laugh with a 1-0 shutout. Starter Riley Moore, pitched seven innings of four-hit ball in his complete game shutout of the Wolves. His performance earned him Picher of the Week honors.

The Player of the Week went to Central Washington’s Darren Honeysett who hit three home runs and drove in eight runs in the Wildcats four-game split with Montana State Billings.

Honeysett now leads the conference in slugging percentage at .763 and moved into third in home runs with four.

By no surprise, the conference’s two best offenses had three slugfests in their series. Central won a game 13-4 while two of MSUB’s wins ended in 14-6 and 11-9 scores. 

Three GNAC teams have seven wins at this still early portion of the 2015 season, but Northwest Nazarene was able to reach the 10-win mark after taking three of four from Concordia.

The Crusaders, who have yet to play a conference game, needed 12 innings to finish off the Cavaliers in their first two games last Friday. 

Pitcher Jake Reppert, who is tied for 20th nationally in victories, pitched another gem by going eight innings while allowing only four hits and striking out six. Reppert now leads the conference with three games pitching at least seven innings while striking out at least five.

Notes:

• Central Washington’s Brandon Williams had another great outing on the year, pitching seven innings while allowing four runs, zero earned, in 13-4 win over MSUB. Williams struck out 13 Wildcats on the day, making it the second time this season the senior has fanned at least 10 batters.
   
• In Brady Muller’s last three starts for the Yellowjackets, he’s gone at least six innings while allowing only five runs. He’s also struck out 26 batters, which is over a quarter of the batters he faced in that span.
   
• After the first quarter of the season, 19 players still have a .300 or better batting average. Two players have better than .400 averages led by CWU’s Ben Dunbar at  .432.

• The Yellowjackets Bret Bitow and Kyle Durbin, the number nine and one hitters in MSUB’s lineup, have started the last 12 games in those spots, reaching base consecutively nine times in that span.

• Northwest Nazarene is the last team to start conference play this season. The Crusaders host Saint Martin’s Friday and Saturday in a four-game series. NNU hasn’t won a conference opener since March 2, 2007 when it shutout Saint Martin’s 9-0.