Wednesday, April 29, 2015

GNAC Tournament (April 30, May 1-2 at Yakima, Wash.): Thursday - #3 Montana State Billings vs. #2 Western Washington, 4:30 p.m.; #1 Saint Martin’s vs. #4 Western Oregon, 7 p.m.  Friday – Winner 1 vs. Winner 2, 2 p.m.; Loser 1 vs. Loser 2, 4:30 p.m.; Loser 3 vs. Winner 4, 7 p.m.  Saturday – Winner 5 vs. Winner 3, noon; Winner 5 vs. Winner 3, 2:30 p.m. (if necessary).   

PORTLAND, Ore. –   Top-seed Saint Martin’s and second-seed Western Washington will take eight and six-game win streaks, respectively, into the third annual Great Northwest Athletic Conference Softball Championships at the Gateway Sports Complex in Yakima.  

The championships begin Thursday as Western Washington (28-16) opens against third-seed Montana State Billings (26-21) at 4:30 p.m. Pacific time.

The second game will send defending champion Western Oregon (21-26) up against top-seed and 2013 champion Saint Martin’s (40-16) at 7 p.m.

The Saints haven’t lost since dropping a doubleheader (5-4, 4-1) at Western Washington on April 12.  Those two wins began a six-game streak for the Vikings, who have won 10 of their last 11.

WWU’s last two losses (8-5 on April 11 and 4-2 on April 2) both came against Western Oregon.

WWU is 10-2 in the month of April and has been led in that time by pitcher Makinlee Sellevold, outfielder Autumn Isaacson and shortstop Alicia Fine.

Sellevold is 9-1 in April, winning her last nine decisions, including all six during WWU’s current win streak.  Her ERA in April is 1.79.

Isaacson is hitting .368 in April and has stolen 13 bases in the month increasing her season total to 30, one shy of her own GNAC record. 

She has 61 career steals, which ranks third in GNAC history.  On the season she is batting .316 and has five triples.

Fine leads WWU in batting with a .373 average and is also tied for the team lead in home runs with 6 and RBI with 37.  Alexie Levin also has six home runs and 37 RBI and Emily Benson also has gone deep six times.

Sellevold takes a 23-7 record to Yakima.  Her victory total is one more than GNAC Pitcher of the Year Sam Munger.

Munger, who has 82 career wins (No. 2 in GNAC history), brings a 22-4 record and a league-best 2.24 ERA to Yakima.

Munger, who was also voted the GNAC Co-Player of the Year along with Montana State Billings shortstop Taylor Hoke, ranks second in the GNAC in batting  with a .431 average.

The Saints, whose 40 victories are just one shy of their school record, are also led by Taviah Jenkins who is hitting .388 and has 11 home runs and a league-best 56 RBI.

Hoke, first baseman Emily Osborn, outfielder Bella Rovens and pitcher Jessyka MacDonald lead MSUB.

Hoke is batting .390 and has 10 home runs and a team-best 46 RBI.  Osborn is batting .377 and has a GNAC-best 12 home runs and 35 RBI and Rovens is batting a team-best .393 and brings a 12-game hitting streak into the tournament.

Macdonald is MSUB’s pitching ace.  She is 16-5 and has a 2.77 ERA.  She also has fanned 118 batters.

Western Oregon has two of the GNAC’s three .400 hitters.  Second baseman Kelsie Gardner leads the conference with a .438 average and outfielder Amanda Evola ranks third with a .404 average.

WOU’s top pitchers are Alyson Boytz (9-11, 3.95 ERA) and Jourdan Williams (7-2, 4.49 ERA).  Williams had a 14-game win streak over two seasons before losing her final two decisions.

The winner of this weekend’s tournament automatically qualifies for the NCAA West Regionals which begin next Thursday.

The regionals will be contested as two four-team sub-regionals.  Five at-large teams will join the GNAC, PacWest and California Collegiate champions in the tournament.

The at-large participants will be determined by the NCAA Regional Advisory Committee.

In this week’s RAC poll, Saint Martin’s was ranked sixth and Western Washington was ranked 10th for the third week in a row.

The eight participating schools and the two hosts for the sub-regionals will be announced Monday morning at 7 a.m. via a news release on the NCAA official web site (ncaa.com).

West Region – 1. Dixie State (42-6); 2. Cal State Monterey Bay (44-10); 3. Cal Baptist (40-9); 4. Humboldt State (39-15); 5. Sonoma State (38-17); 6. Saint Martin’s (32-13); 7. Chico State (26-18); 8. Hawaii Hilo (31-16-1); 9. Cal State East Bay (28-23); 10. Western Washington (28-16).

Saints Fifth in Batting

Saint Martin’s ranks fifth in batting in this week’s NCAA Division II national statistical report with a .348 average.

That equals the GNAC record set last year by Western Washington.  The Saints also rank 10th in on-base percentage (.419).

Also ranked in the Top 10 in this week’s report are Western Oregon (6th in double plays, 0.53) and Western Washington (9th in double plays, 0.50).

In individual categories,  Heather Tracy of MSU Billings ranks sixth in toughest to strikeout, fanning just once every 66 official at bats.

Kailyn Campbell of Central Washington ranks 10th in RBI per game.  She finished her season with a 1.23 average.

GNAC PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

Player – Autumn Isaacson, Western Washington (OF, 5-5, Sr., Lake Stevens, WA – Bellevue CC) and Bella Rovens, MSU Billings (OF, 5-7, So., Sparks, NV – Spanish Springs) …  Isaacson stole six bases to increase her season total to 30, one shy of her own GNAC record she set last season.  She had five hits in 11 at bats in doubleheader sweeps of Central Washington and Simon Fraser and also scored seven runs.  Rovens, MSUB’s lead-off hitter, had six hits in seven at bats as the Yellowjackets split two games to earn the No. 3 seed in the conference playoffs.  Among her six hits were a pair of doubles. On the season, Rovens leads the GNAC in on-base percentage (.488) and ranks fourth in batting (.393), runs scored (44) and stolen bases (12). 

Pitching – Makinlee Sellevold,  Western Washington (P, 5-4, Fr., Everett, WA - Cascade) won four games to finish the regular-season with a league-best 23 victories.  Sellevold allowed just two runs and 15 hits in 19 innings.

Team Notes

Central Washington:  Celine Fowler batted .571 (8-of-14) as the Wildcats split four games.  Kailyn Campbell had seven hits in 13 at bats and drove in a team-best six runs.  Kiana Wood and Lindsey Kamphuis each had 1.75 ERAs and 1-1 records, allowing three earned runs in 12 innings.  Wood also was effective with a stick going five for seven.

Montana State Billings:  Bella Rovens had six hits in seven at bats to extend her hitting streak to 12 games as the Yellowjackets divided a doubleheader with Western Oregon to earn the No. 3 seed in the conference playoffs.  The final two games of the series were canceled due to unplayable field conditions.  Jessyka MacDonald  fanned 13 in eight inning in  the two games, picking up the win.

Northwest Nazarene: Ali Schauer, Kiahna Brown and Lily Paschal all had five hits in NNU’s four-game series last weekend against Saint Martin’s.  Schauer and Gatalina Schuster each had a home run and five RBI.  Ashley Pesek also  hit a home run in the series.

Saint Martin’s:  Dani Wall had seven hits in 13 at bats in  SMU’s series at Nampa.  Wall (.538) was one of three players to bat .500 or better in the series as Mary Dettling and Jackie Schmaeling each had six hits in 12 at bats.  Sam Munger drove in a team-best seven runs, but had her 21-game hitting streak, which is the third longest in GNAC history, snapped.  In the circle, Munger posted a 2-0 record and a 0.98 ERA, allowing eight hits and two runs in 14 1/3 innings.

Simon Fraser:  Kaitlyn Cameron, Nicole Ratel and Danielle Raison all had three hits.  Ratel had the team’s only home run during the week and two of their five RBIs.  Cameron also drove in a pair of runs. 

Western Oregon: Alyson Boytz scattered 10 hits in pitching the Wolves to a 5-1 win at Montana State Billings.  She didn’t walk a batter and fanned three.  Zoe Clark and Lexi Jennings hit home runs as WOU split Friday’s doubleheader.

Western Washington:  Arianna Barrio had six hits in 10 at bats in the Vikings’ four victories.  Autumn Isaacson had five hits in 11 at bats, scored seven runs and stole six bases.  Makinlee Sellevold, who has allowed just three runs in her last 26 innings, won all four games, three as a starter and one in relief.

GNAC Weekly (PDF)