Wednesday, March 11, 2015

PORTLAND, Ore. –  Defending GNAC champion Western Oregon, riding a six-game winning streak, is at home Friday as it tries to protect a one game lead in the early portion of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference softball pennant race.

The Wolves (9-11, 4-0)  host Simon Fraser (9-9, 0-2) in a doubleheader that was originally scheduled for Saturday but has been moved up a day because of anticipated rain on Saturday.  The first pitch will be at 1.

Likewise, a scheduled doubleheader Saturday in Lacey between Western Washington (11-7, 4-2) and Saint Martin’s (17-12, 3-1) will also start 24 hours earlier.

WOU’s Sunday doubleheader with Western Washington has also been rescheduled and will now be played on April 2 beginning at 2 p.m.

WOU swept a four-game conference series last weekend with Northwest Nazarene (2-13, 0-4).  Meanwhile, Simon Fraser was swept by Central Washington (8-7, 2-2) in its conference openers.

Saint Martin’s opened its conference season last week winning 3-of-4 games with Montana State Billings (10-13, 3-5) which is idle this week.

Western Washington trails Western Oregon by one game after winning four of six conference games in the opening week. 

The Vikings split a four-game series with MSUB, before sweeping a home doubleheader with Central Washington.

CWU ended the week with a 2-2 record. The Wildcats are at home this weekend for a four-game series with Northwest Nazarene, which will be looking for its first conference victories.

Following are some of the highlights for the opening week of conference play:

Team Notes

Central Washington:  Pitching dominated all four games  of CWU’s twinbill against Simon Fraser and Western Washington with the losing team scoring one run twice and twice being shutout.  CWU swept the Clan 3-1 and 7-0 before getting swept 7-1 and 5-0 by the Vikings.  Sammy Morris led Central offensively with six hits in 14 at bats.  In the circle Lindsey Kamphuis and Kiana Wood allowed five runs in 13 and 11 innings, respectively, each posting 1-1 records.  Only one of the five runs off of Kamphuis was earned.

Montana State Billings:  Aubrey Conceicao batted .522 on MSUB’s eight-game conference road trip to Bellingham and Lacey.  Conceicao and Kelsey Devlin each drove in six runs as MSUB won three of five road games.  Taylor Hope had nine hits in 23 at bats.

Northwest Nazarene: Ali Schauer and Lili Paschal each had four hits in 12 at bats in the Crusaders’ four-game series at Western Oregon.  Ashley Pesek had NNU’s only two home runs as well as handling most of the pitching duties, fanning 18 hitters in 13 1/3 innings.

Saint Martin’s:  Lindsey Miller didn’t allow a run and gave up just one hit in 8 2/3 innings as the Saints won  three of four games in a series with MSU Billings, outscoring the Yellowjackets 29-8.   In a 5-0 win over MSU Billings, the only hit she surrendered was a lead-off double in the third inning by Taylor Hoke.  On offense both Miller and Sam Munger had six hits.  Alyssa Slate had a team-best five RBI.

Simon Fraser:  Alex Baylak batted .471 (8-of-17) as the Clan posted a 2-4 record.  Taylor Lundrigan and Rachel Proctor had identical .389 averages each going seven for 18.  Proctor had a team-high five RBIs.   Kelsie Hawkins won two of three decisions, allowing just three runs in 15 2/3 innings, walking just one batter and striking out 13 batters.

Western Oregon: Amanda Evola batted .600 (See Player of the Week) in WOU’s four-game sweep of Northwest.  The Wolves outhit NNU .,375 to .220 in the series and posted a 1.62 team ERA, led by Alyson Boytz, who pitched two complete games, allowing just 10 hits and three runs in 14 innings.   The Wolves hit six home runs in the series, two each by Evola and Emma Alfonso, who had just nine official at bats.

Western Washington: Alicia Fine had nine hits, including three doubles, to lead the Vikings to a 4-2 record to open the conference season.    Alexie Levin and Emily Benson each had six RBI in  the six games during which the Vikings scored 30 runs and allowed 30.  Makinlee Sellevold, who won all four games, gave up 8 runs in 32 1/3.  In the  11 2/3 innings in which Sellevold didn’t pitch, the Vikings surrendered 22 runs.

GNAC Players of the Week

Player – Amanda Evola, Western Oregon (CF, 5-7, Sr., Beaverton, OR - Westview), had nine hits in 15 at bats, including two doubles and two home runs to lead the Wolves to a four-game sweep against Northwest Nazarene during which it outscored the Wolves 31-8.  Evola also drove in six runs in raising her career batting average to .399.  That ranks sixth in GNAC history.  Only four players in conference history have finished their careers with a .400 average.  She currently ranks sixth in career hits with 234 and fourth in RBI with 152.  Pitcher – Makinlee Sellevold, Western Washington (5-4, Fr., Everett, WA - Cascade) posted a 4-0 record as the Vikings began their conference season winning four of six contests.  Among the victories was a 5-0 shutout of Central Washington Sunday.  In 32 1/3 innings, she allowed just eight runs, seven earned. She gave up 30 hits and walked 13, but only 18.6 percent of the runners who reached on a hit or walk ended up scoring.

GNAC WEEKLY (PDF)