Wednesday, April 16, 2014

PORTLAND, Ore. – Following an 11-for-16 performance last week, Central Washington right fielder Ethan Sterkel was named National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association West Region Player of the Week.

Sterkel was instrumental in helping the Wildcats to a 3-1 series victory over Northwest Nazarene, pushing his team into sole possession of second place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference baseball standings.

In the 10-7 Game 1 win, Sterkel went 4-for-4 and fueled a 3-run rally in the eighth inning with a home run and another 3-run rally in the ninth with an RBI-double.

The victories helped CWU (21-14, 14-10 GNAC) keep pace with GNAC-leading Western Oregon, which sits in first place with a conference record of 16-8.

Northwest Nazarene (15-20, 11-11) fell to .500 in conference play and currently occupies the third position in the standings. The Crusaders host Western Oregon this weekend in a pivotal four-game series in Nampa.

Meanwhile, fourth-place Montana State Billings (10-22, 7-11) will look to gain ground on the Crusaders with a big four-game series against Saint Martin’s (10-25, 6-14) in Billings beginning Friday.

With a week off from conference play, Central Washington will host a four-game series against Holy Names with doubleheaders set for Friday and Saturday. 

NOTABLES

While Sterkel helped power CWU to victory last week, junior transfer Cory Welch had a major impact both in the field and on the mound for the Wildcats. Starting all four games at shortstop, Welch converted all 17 fielding chances that came his way on the weekend.

The junior also came out of the bullpen twice for the Wildcats, earning saves in the Game 1 victory and again in the narrow 6-5 Game 3 triumph. Welch also homered and drove in a pair of runs in the third game of the series, and he leads the GNAC in saves this season with eight.

Fully emerging onto the scene in his sophomore campaign, Western Oregon first baseman Nathan Etheridge remained red hot at the plate last week. Over his last eight games, Etheridge is batting .406 (13-for-32) with six doubles, two home runs, eight RBI and seven runs scored. He has struck out just three times over his last 34 plate appearances, and has handled all 65 of his chances at first base without an error during that period.

“Nathan has seen some great results recently not only offensively but defensively as well,” WOU head coach Kellen Walker said during an interview on GNAC Insider on Tuesday evening. “He had some gains to make, and give him credit as he has continued to get better.”

Producing at a similar clip to WOU’s Etheridge as of late has been another sophomore in Montana State Billings’ Luke Reinschmidt. The center fielder is batting .429 (15-for-35) over his last 10 conference games, with four doubles, two triples, a home run and 10 runs scored over the stretch.

Overall, the Yellowjackets feature three of the top-10 hitters in the conference, with Brody Miller (.412) and Kevin Toon (.376) ranking first and second in batting average. Reinschmidt’s mark of .345 ranks seventh in the GNAC.

NNU senior Aaron Vaughn earned Red Lion Pitcher of the Week honors after tossing his conference-leading sixth complete game of the season to help the Crusaders to a 7-0 win over CWU. Vaughn struck out eight and did not allow a run, lowering his ERA to a GNAC second-best 2.25. Vaughn’s 10 career complete games are tied for fifth-most in GNAC history, and the all-time mark of 13 (held by NNU’s Steven Schulte, 2002-04) is within reach.

Alex Bielaski of Saint Martin’s notched four hits in eight nonconference at bats last week, maintaining his GNAC third-best batting average of .373. Also in the top-10 in hitting for the Saints is Travis Shaw, who is batting .347 on the season and is one of two players in the conference with 10 doubles.