Wednesday, April 8, 2015

PORTLAND, Ore. – Four weeks remain until the 2015 GNAC Championships and it’s still very much a question as to where the tournament will be held.

Western Oregon, which split with Central Washington last week, still holds the conference lead at 12-7, but the rest of the field isn’t far behind.

Montana State Billings is virtually one game behind the Wolves for the conference lead at 9-6. MSUB, which had a break from game-play last week, has four conference series left in the season including a five-game home-stand against the Wolves.

Northwest Nazarene, which surpassed last year’s win total last week with a sweep of Saint Martin’s, is still in the hunt for the conference regular-season title as well.

The Crusaders will have a tough road to reach the title, however, as its last two series are on the road against the Yellowjackets and the Wolves.

Central Washington has shown signs of resurgence as of late, winning five of its last seven games including a series victory at Holy Names and taking two against Western Oregon. Saint Martin’s has potential to break into the playoff field as well, playing three of their remaining four series at home.

The GNAC Championships will be held at the home of the regular-season champion May 7-8.

The Crusaders and Wolves will be focusing solely on their GNAC competition after playing their last non-conference games of the season this week.

NNU will face The College of Idaho Tuesday in a single-game in Nampa. The Crusaders have split their two games played against the Coyotes earlier in the year.

Western Oregon also gets a chance to decide its series against 19th-ranked Lewis-Clark State of the NAIA in a single nine-inning game Thursday. The Wolves have split their season series with the Warriors, handing them two of their nine losses on the year.

Central Washington and Montana State Billings will face each other for the second time this season, each taking two in the matchup in Ellensburg at the end of February.

Western Oregon will host Saint Martin’s in the other conference series this week.

Notes:

• The Montana State Billings doubleheader against Dickinson State Wednesday has been cancelled because of bad weather. No make-up date will be set. MSUB is now done with its non-conference slate this season, finishing 5-11 – all on the road. In its 16 games, the Yellowjackets batted .302 while outhitting their opponents 185 to 182. Five of the loses MSUB suffered was by one run.
   
• Due to complications in travel schedules, the Western Oregon - Lewis-Clark State doubleheader Thursday will now be a single nine-inning contest. The game will start at 1 p.m. Pacific at the WOU Baseball Field.

• Northwest Nazarene seniors Kaleb DeHaas, Tate Glasgow and Tyler Marsh are involved with a special project to help send batting cages to Nicaragua. Click HERE to find out about their project. You can also find out more about their efforts, or donate to their cause, at NNUsports.com.
   
• The Central Washington - MSUB series will feature the conferences best two offenses. The Yellowjackets batting average sits at .305 while the Wildcats are at .291. Both teams rank atop the conference in slugging and on-base percentage as well.
   
• NNU’s Tim Jones and Josh Hatfield each stole three bases in three attempts in last week’s sweep of Saint Martin’s. As a team, the Crusaders were 10-for-12 in stolen bases. They have stolen 45-of-67 (67.2%) bases on the year.
   
• SMU’s last road trip of the season will be Friday and Saturday at Western Oregon. The trip to Monmouth the past five years has not been kind to the Saints, winning only 5 of 19 games there, including playoffs.
   
• Western Oregon split its season series against CWU. This is the fourth time in GNAC history, and second year in a row, the teams have split the series. Since joining the GNAC, the Wolves have never lost a regular-season series against the Wildcats.

• Northwest Nazarene’s Jesse Hilyard was selected as the GNAC Player of the Week while Western Oregon’s Jesse Pratt was the Pitcher of the Week. Hilyard scored the game-winning run in NNU’s two wins against Saint Martin’s Saturday, including leading-off the bottom of the tenth with a double to win the game 4-3. Pratt is the first repeat winner of the year, pitching a complete-game shutout of the Wildcats Friday. Pratt retired the first 16 batters he faced while allowing just a single hit the entire game.