Wednesday, March 18, 2015

PORTLAND, Ore. –    Saint Martin’s (19-12 overall) and Western Oregon (10-12 overall) take 5-1 Great Northwest Athletic Conference records to Ellensburg Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

The Saints and Wolves begin the weekend tied for first place in the GNAC, just percentage points ahead of the Wildcats (12-7), who improved to 6-2 in the GNAC with a four-game sweep of Northwest Nazarene last weekend.

Just two games back of the three frontrunners is Western Washington (11-9, 4-4), which opens a four-game series Friday at Northwest Nazarene (2-17, 0-8).

Meanwhile, Simon Fraser (10-10, 1-3) travels to Billings for a four-game series with MSU Billings (10-13, 3-5).  The games are the home openers for the Yellowjackets after beginning the season with 23 road games.

Central Washington will have to solve the offerings of Sam Munger if it hopes to slip past the Saints and/or Wolves into first place in the GNAC.

Munger leads the GNAC in wins with 10 and is tied for the conference lead in strikeouts with NNU’s Ashley Pesek with 57.  She also has the league’s second best ERA (1.88) after throwing 20 consecutive scoreless innings and three shutouts last week.

Munger, who now has a streak of 21 innings without surrendering a run, gave up 13 hits, walked seven and fanned 16 in earning GNAC  Pitcher of the Week for the first time this season. 

In February, she was the recipient of the GNAC Player of the Week award an award she could have been a candidate for last week as she batted .500 (8-of-16) and stole three bases.

The Saints and Wildcats go into their series with the two best team batting averages in the GNAC.  SMU is batting .330 and averages 5.3 runs per game.  CWU is hitting .328 and scores a GNAC-best 5.6 runs per game.

The two teams also rank 1-2 in the GNAC in ERA; CWU at 2.72 and SMU at 2.94.

Individually, Sammy Morris leads the Wildcats in hitting with a .405 average. Taviah Jenkins paces the Saints with a .404 average and is the conference leader in hits (38), runs scored (26) and RBIs (23).

Jenkins also ranks second in home runs  with five in back of Emily Osborn of MSUB Billings who has six.

On Sunday, the Wildcats will host the league’s top hitter  as Western Oregon’s Amanda Evola will bring a .420 average to town.

Evola has had two double-digit hitting streaks this spring (11 and 10).  The latter streak is current.  The Wolves are also led in hitting by Kelsie Gardner with a .395 average.

MSUB will face the GNAC’s top-ranked pitcher in its series as Simon Fraser’s Kelsie Hawkins leads the GNAC with a 1.51 ERA and a 6-1 record.

Taylor Hoke leads MSUB with a .403 average, while Alex Baylak of Simon Fraser paces the Clan with a .400 average.

Western Washington’s Alicia Fine takes a .382 average to Nampa for its four-game series with Northwest Nazarene. 

Freshman Makinlee Sellevold has an 8-3 record and a 2.64 ERA.  She has thrown a conference-best 85 innings in 14 appearances, an average of 6 innings per start.

Northwest Nazarene will be hoping to end a 10-game losing streak,  Whitney Carlton is NNU’s top hitter batting .354.   She is tied for fourth in the GNAC with three home runs.

Following this weekend all seven GNAC teams will head for California next week to compete in the annual Cal State Stanislaus Tournament of Champions.

The tournament will feature  24 West Region teams including nine from the CCAA, eight from the PacWest and seven from the GNAC.

Munger, Slate, Isaacson Ranked In Top 10

Saint Martin’s Sam Munger is tied for second in saves in this week’s NCAA Division II national statistical report with 3.

Also in the Top 10 are SMU’s Alyssa Slate and Western Washington’s Autumn Isaacson.  Slate is sixth in sacrifice flies with 3 and Isaacson is ninth in triples with 4.

In team categories, Western Washington ranks seventh in double plays, averaging 0.60 per game (12 in 20 games).

The Vikings have made just 20 errors in 19 games and lead the conference with a .969 fielding percentage.

Team Notes

Central Washington:  Andrea Hamada had seven hits in 11 at bats and Austin Wilkerson had eight hits in 13 at bats as the Wildcats batted .424 in their four-game sweep of Northwest Nazarene.  Both players had three doubles,  Hamada also had a home run.  In the circle, Lindsey Kamphuis allowed just 12 hits and four runs in 14 innings and Kiana Wood surrendered just seven hits and five runs in 11 innings.

Montana State Billings:  After going 3-5 on an eight-game conference road trip, the Yellowjackets were idle last weekend.  Near the midway point of the season, the Yellowjackets rank fourth in the GNAC in batting (.306), pitching (4.82) and fielding (.952).  They are tied with Saint Martin’s for the most home runs with 15.

Northwest Nazarene: Whitney Carlton and Alyssa Nitschelm each had four hits to lead the Crusaders in their series against CWU.  Twenty-one of NNUJ’s 23 hits in the series were singles.  The only extra base hits were home runs by Carlton and Ashley Pesek.

Saint Martin’s:  Sam Munger (See GNAC Player of the Week notes) had three shutouts increasing her career total to 17, which ranks fifth in GNAC history.  She also ranks second in career innings pitched (659) and third in wins (70), appearances (119) and complete games (119).  Offensively, Alyssa Slate and Taviah Jenkins (See Player of the Week) paced the Saints, who won five of six games. Slate had nine hits in 15 at bats and accounted for nine runs, scoring five and driving in four.

Simon Fraser:  The Clan took league-leader and defending GNAC champion Western Oregon into extra innings twice, in splitting a doubleheader.  Taylor Gillis had five hits in nine at bats  in the doubleheader and scored three of SFU’s 10 runs.  Kelsie Hawkins pitched all 10 innings of SFU’s 5-3 Game 1 victory, allowing seven hits and three runs.  Just one was earned and she fanned 11.

Western Oregon: Amanda Evola has had two double-digit hitting streaks.  She started the season with an 11-game streak before going 0-for-2 against Regis on Feb. 15.  She’s followed that up with a 10-game streak.  In last week’s twinbill versus Simon Fraser, Kelsie Gardner led WOU with five hits in 10 at bats.   In the circle, Lizzet Dominguez allowed just two hits and one run in 5 1/3 innings of relieve in WOU’s 6-5, 8-inning win.  Alyson Boytz came away with a no-decision in the opener pitching 8 2/3 innings and allowing 10 hits and two runs.

Western Washington: The Vikings, who rank seventh in NCAA Division II in double plays with 11 in 20 contests, lead the GNAC in fielding percentage with a .969 percentage, committing just 19 errors.  Last week, the Vikings scored just one run – on a seventh-inning single by Jordan Walley in a 2-1 loss – in a doubleheader with Saint Martin’s.

GNAC Players of the Week: Player -  Alexa Olague, Central Washington (3B, 5-6, Jr., Tacoma, WA - Wilson) and Taviah Jenkins, Saint Martin’s (OF, 5-8, Sr., Castle Rock, WA) … Olague led the Wildcats to a four-game sweep of Northwest Nazarene, banging out six hits, including two doubles and the only triple in the GNAC last week.  She also had six RBI.  In Saturday’s sweep, her two-out RBI single in the bottom of the seventh gave CWU a 6-5 victory in the first game.  In the second contest, she led off the bottom of the sixth with a single and the Wildcats went on to score six runs to break a 2-2 tie in an 8-2 win … Jenkins had eight hits in 16 at bats, including a double and home run, and also drove in eight runs as the Saints won five of six games including a 5-0, 2-1 sweep Saturday against Western Washington.  Pitcher – Sam Munger, Saint Martin’s (P-SS, 5-6, Sr., Everett, WA - Cascade) won three games and had a save and didn’t allow a run in 20 innings pitching two shutouts against both Notre Dame de Namur (9-0, 2-0) and Western Washington (5-0). She allowed just 13 hits and fanned 16.  She hasn’t allowed a run in 21 consecutive innings.