Tuesday, May 7, 2019

PORTLAND, Ore. – After earning its fourth regular-season title in five years, Montana State Billings tops the field for the 2019 GNAC Baseball Championships, beginning Wednesday at Porter Park on the campus of Concordia University.

A pair of conference tournament mainstays in addition to two teams anxious to return to the postseason make up the field. Entering the final week of the regular season, Montana State Billings, Western Oregon and Northwest Nazarene had all secured tournament berths while Saint Martin’s clinched its spot last Saturday.

For the first time, the four teams will have something more than a trophy to play for with the tournament champion earning the GNAC’s first-ever automatic berth into the NCAA Division II Championship.

Montana State Billings dominated throughout the conference season, winning eight of its final nine GNAC series while splitting the other. The Yellowjackets have smashed 79 home runs this year, smashing the conference’s single-season record in the process.

The team leads the league in plenty of other offensive categories, including RBI (342), slugging percentage (.546) and runs scored (378).

Topping MSUB at the plate has been first baseman Daniel Cipriano. Cipriano won the GNAC’s batting title with a .409 average and also paces the conference with 50 RBI, 17 home runs and a .534 on-base percentage.

Third baseman Chris Arpan and senior Jalen Garcia have also lit it up offensively. Arpan ranks second in the conference with a batting average of .370, while Garcia is hitting .366 and is slotted second in both hits (63) and doubles (14).

Back to defend its GNAC Championships title will be Western Oregon. Returning to the tournament for a seventh straight season, the Wolves may be the most balanced team in the field as they top the conference in both batting average (.326) and earned run average (3.96).

The Wolves pitching staff has thrown seven shutouts on the season, with one of the most recent coming in no-hit fashion from southpaw Austin Crowson. The performance marked just the fifth no-hitter in GNAC history.

Also dominant on the mound this season has been right-hander Alex Roth. Roth leads the league in earned run average (2.65) and enters the postseason with a perfect 6-0 record.

At the plate, the duo of Jared McDonald and Griffey Halle have been a handful for opposing staffs throughout the season. McDonald finds himself at the top of multiple GNAC statistical categories, ranking third with a batting average of .367, second in runs scored at 46 and fourth with a .457 on-base percentage. Halle enters the postseason hitting .333 and is slotted second in the conference with 48 RBI.

Northwest Nazarene is making its fourth GNAC Championships appearance in the last five years and its first under new head coach Joe Schaeffer.

The club is led by slugger Kyle Redford, who tops the team with a .327 batting average and 34 RBI. He is one of four Nighthawks to appear in all 46 games this season.

On the mound, senior Jesse Hilyard has been NNU’s most consistent starting pitcher this year. Leading the team with a 4.12 earned run average, Hilyard has compiled a near-spotless record of 6-1 while striking out 38. Teammate Cooper Webster has thrown three complete games on the 2019 campaign, notching a team-leading 59 strikeouts in the process.

Rounding out the field is Saint Martin’s, which will make its second-ever appearance in the GNAC Championships and its first since 2014. The Saints went .500 through a crucial month of April and then clinched a spot in the tournament on the penultimate day of the regular season.

Entering with one of the deepest pitching staffs in the field, right-hander Tanner Inouye tops the team with four wins and 77 strikeouts. The club also boasts the league-leader in saves with seven from senior Mickey Walker.

Freshman Aaron Renaud has made plenty of noise at the plate in his first collegiate season, hitting at a .307 average while tallying 26 RBI.

Action at the GNAC Championships begins on Wednesday with No. 2 seed Western Oregon facing third-seeded Northwest Nazarene at 2:30 p.m. Regular-season champion Montana State Billings will then take on No. 4 seed Saint Martin’s at 6 p.m. The title game in the double-elimination tournament will begin on Friday at noon with a second game to follow if necessary.