Wednesday, February 26, 2014

PORTLAND, Ore. - With the conference openers a week away, four of the GNAC's seven teams continue non-conference play this weekend.

Northwest Nazarene (5-8) takes on county rival College of Idaho in home-and-home doubleheaders Friday at Caldwell and Saturday at Nampa.

Saint Martin's (2-5) hosts Northwest University Saturday before visiting Concordia Sunday.  Meanwhile,  Simon Fraser and Western Washington have doubleheaders scheduled with British Columbia.  SFU plays at UBC Saturday; UBC then visits WWU on Sunday.

Last week, Western Oregon won four of six games in the St. Mary's Rattler Invitational.  Central Washington posted a 2-4 record on a trip to California.  Northwest Nazarene won one of four home games and Western Washington swept a doubleheader from Northwest.

Last week's highlights included:

GNAC RED LION PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: Player - Ashlie Gardner, Western Oregon (IF,  5-7, Sr., Salem, OR – North Salem) earned all-tournament honors at the Rattler Invitational at San Antonio, Tex., batting .350 and leading the Wolves with six RBI.  She had seven hits in 20 at bats, including two doubles and a home run leading WOU to four wins in six contests.  Pitcher – Maria Gau, Central Washington (5-7, Sr., Woodinville, WA) allowed just three runs and 15 hits in 18 innings, winning two of three decisions during a weekend road trip to California.  She walked five and fanned 12.

HONORABLE MENTION: Eryka Brill, Western Oregon (P, 6-1, Sr., Dallas, OR) won a pair of games at the Rattler Invitational.  In 18 innings, she allowed 10 runs, walked four and fanned 11 ...  Justine Callen, Northwest Nazarene (P, 5-9, So., Oregon City, OR – Clackamas CC) pitched the Crusaders to a 10-3 win over Eastern Oregon, allowing seven hits and a pair of earn runs ... Brianna Kinghorn, Northwest Nazarene (1B, 5-6, Jr., Meridian, ID – Mountain View) had seven hits in 14 at bats and drove in four runs as the Crusaders dropped three of four games.

TEAM NOTES

Central Washington: Despite outscoring its three opponents, 29-22, the Wildcats lost four of six games on a road trip to California, losing twice by one run and twice by two runs.  Austin Wilkerson (.429), Sammy Morris (.375) and Jill McDaniels (.316) all had six hits.  McDaniels had CWU’s lone home run and drove in a team-high seven runs.

Northwest Nazarene: In addition to Kinghorn (See Honorable Mention notes), Ali Schauer led NNU offensively with five hits in eight at bats as the Crusaders won one of four games in their home openers.  NNU was outhit .316 to .278.

Western Oregon:  Melanie Pfeiffer batted .429 (9-of-21) in the Rattler Invitational at San Antonio.  She was one of four .300 hitters (min. 12 at bats) for WOU in the tournament including Ashlie Gardner, Amanda Evola (.304, 7-for-23) and Bridjet Box (.300, 6-of-20).  Evola also drove in five runs.

Western Washington:  Alexie Levin had five hits in six at bats to lead the Vikings to a doubleheader sweep of Northwest.  Levin also drove in five runs.  WWU’s pitchers (Jenna DeRosier, 2 hits in 5 innings), Aspen Ison (0 hits in 5 innings) and Shayna Adelstein (0 hits in 1 inning) didn’t allow a run.