Wednesday, March 12, 2014

PORTLAND, Ore. - Three teams take perfect league records into Week 2 of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference league slate this weekend.

Central Washington (11-4, 4-0), which hosts Montana State Billings (5-8, 0-4) for a four-game series Saturday and Sunday, and Western Oregon (13-10, 4-0), which plays at Simon Fraser (0-13, 0-4) Saturday and Western Washington (10-5, 2-2) Sunday, both opened their conference campaigns with four wins.

Meanwhile, pre-season conference favorite Saint Martin's (7-7, 3-0), which swept a three-game series with Northwest Nazarene (5-14, 0-3) last week, also heads north for doubleheaders with Western Washington and Simon Fraser Saturday and Sunday.  NNU, meanwhile, is idle.

The WWU-WOU doubleheader Sunday at Bellingham will feature the GNAC's Top 4 hitters.

Western Washington outfielder/pitcher Alexie Levin leads the conference and ranks 18th nationally in batting with a .542 average.  Levin is also the conference leader in home runs with five and is tied with WOU's Amanda Evola for the RBI lead with 24.

Western Washington's lineup also features the conference's No. 2 and No. 3 ranked hitters in Jordan Walley and Autumn Isaacson.  Walley is batting .452 and Isaacson, who leads the GNAC in stolen bases and ranks ninth nationally with 15, is hitting .449.

As a team the Vikings are batting .366 and rank sixth nationally.

WOU's Melanie Pfeiffer, this week's GNAC Red Lion Player of the Week, ranks fourth in the conference in batting with a .415 average and is the conference leader in runs scored with 25 and hits with 34.  Evola also ranks in the Top 10 in batting.  She is ninth with a .386 average.

Isaacson is one of four GNAC players who rank in the Top 10 nationally in a category.

WOU's Bridjet Box is tied for ninth in sacrifice flies with three and Kelli Deminaew of Western Oregon and Noelle Wright of Northwest Nazarene are tied for eighth in saves with two.

Along with Pfeiffer, Wright was also a Red Lion Player of the Week selection last week after pitching a two-hitter in a 1-0 loss at Saint Martin's Friday.  She struck out four in the game and the lone run was unearned.

In team categories, in addition to ranking sixth in batting, Western Washington is also 11th in scoring (7.33) and slugging (.544) and 20th in home runs per game (1.00).  Northwest Nazarene is the GNAC leader and ranks 18th nationally in four-baggers averaging 1.05.

NCAA NATIONAL STATISTICS (Top 30; through March 9)

Team: Batting – 6. Western Washington .366.  Fielding – 28. Central Washington .970.  Scoring – 11. Western Washington 7.33; 29. Saint Martin’s 6.33.  Home Runs – 18. Northwest Nazarene 1.05; 20. Western Washington 1.00.  Slugging – 11. Western Washington .544.  

Individual:  Batting – 18. Alexie Levin, WWU, .542.  Home Runs – 30. Taviah Jenkins, SMU, and Alexie Levin, WWU, 0.33.  RBI – 14. Alexie Levin, WWU, 1.60.  Stolen Bases – 9. Autumn Isaacson, WWU, 1.00.  Saves – 8. Kelli Demianew, WOU, and Noelle Wright, NNU, 2.  23. Five with 1.  Slugging – 27. Alexie Levin, WWU, .958. HBP – 22. Jackie Schmaeling, SMU, 0.42.  Triples – 28. Autumn Isaacson, WWU, 2.  On-Base PCT. – 24. Alexie

Pfeiffer Hitting Streak Reaches 12

WOU's Melanie Pfeiffer had 11 hits in 19 at bats and reached base 15 times posting a .652 on-base percentage as the Wolves won five of six games last week, including a four-game sweep of Montana State Billings in earning Red Lion Player of the Week honors.

Pfeiffer, who extended her hitting streak to 12 games Tuesday as WOU extended its win streak to six with a pair of non-conference wins over Northwest Christian, accounted for eight runs – 22 percent of WOU’s total – scoring six times and driving in two in last week's games.

Also turning in outstanding performances last week were Saint Martin's Taviah Jenkins, WWU's Levin and Maikala Galusha of Central Washington.

Jenkins  had five hits in seven at bats in a three-game sweep of Northwest Nazarene to raise her season average to a team-best .371.  Among her hits were a double and two home runs, including an inside-the-park three-run shot.  She drove in six runs increasing her season total to 16.

Levin personally outscored her opponents 9-0 as she scored four runs and drove in eight including herself three times with a trio of circuit blasts while not allowing a run and only four hits in six innings in the circle.  Levin had six hits in 11 at bats raising her season average one point to .542.

Galusha had three doubles, including a game-ending hit in CWU's Sunday’s 4-3 victory over Western Washington.  She drove in four runs as the Wildcats earned home sweeps of Simon Fraser and WWU. 

Top pitching performances in addition to Wright's two-hitter were by Sam Munger of Saint Martin's, Kelli Demianew of Western Oregon and Kiana Wood of Central Washington.

Munger posted a pair of wins as the Saints ran their win streak to six games.  That streak came to an end with a pair of non-conference losses to British Columbia Tuesday.

In 10 innings she allowed nine hits and three runs, but just one was earned as she posted a 0.70 ERA,  Munger walked two and fanned four.  At the plate, she had three hits in eight at bats.

Demianew picked up a pair of saves and a victory in the Wolves’ four-game sweep of Montana State Billings allowing just two runs and nine hits in 11 innings.  Including a non-conference game with Concordia, she posted a 1.17 ERA and a 1-1 record, allowing six runs (three earned) in 18 innings.

Wood  won a pair of contests tossing two complete games and allowing 15 hits and eight runs (six earned) in 14 innings.  She also had four hits in six at bats.

AROUND THE GNAC

Central Washington had a pair of game-ending hits in their sweep of Western Washington.  In the opener, CWU scored twice in the seventh on singles by Taylor Ferleman and Kailyn Campbell to pull out the win.  Ferleman had three hits in the contest.  

Galusha then won the second with a RBI double.   Jill McDaniels was one of four players to have five hits on the weekend, which included two wins over Simon Fraser, and also had a team-best five RBI,

Taylor Hoke, Katie Schermele and Bella Rovens all had four hits to lead Montana State Billings in their four-game series at Western Oregon. 

Ashley Pesek had three hits in five at bats to pace the Northwest Nazarene offensively in their three-game series at Saint Martin’s.  Justine Callen had NNU’s lone home run.

Alyssa Slate and Taviah Jenkins each had five hits in seven at bats in Saint Martin’s three-game sweep of Northwest Nazarene.  The Saint pitching staff carved out a 0.41 team earned run average, allowing just three runs (one earned) and 15 hits in 17 innings. 

Kaylee Lawson pitched a six-hit 1-0 shutout in Friday’s second game against the Crusaders.

Kaitlyn Cameron had a team-best five hits to pace Simon Fraser offensively in its doubleheaders with Western Washington and Central Washington.

In addition to Pfeiffer, Kelsie Gardner and Amanda Evola led Western Oregon to its four-game sweep of MSUB.  Gardner had six hits in 14 at bats and Evola went 5-of-15 and drove in a team-high six runs.

Isaacson had five hits and stole four bases as Western Washington split four games. Her stolen base total of 15 is more than twice as many as any other player in the conference.

For more GNAC Softball news, click on the link.