Thursday, February 23, 2023

PORTLAND, Ore. – The second week of the baseball season saw three of the GNAC teams host their first home games of the year. Northwest Nazarene, Saint Martin’s and Western Oregon all opened their home schedule, while Central Washington wrapped up its California road trip. Montana State Billings will be back in action when they face CSU Pueblo on the road on Feb. 27.

DUB TOWN: Western Oregon took its first series win of the season with a 3-1 week against Eastern Oregon in Monmouth. The Wolves put in 21 innings of work in Saturday’s doubleheader alone, taking a 5-4 win in 13 innings to open the series and narrowly dropping the nightcap 2-1 in eight innings. On Sunday, WOU cranked up the offense, winning the first game of the day 12-4 and the series finale 9-0.

Senior Derek Maiben led the charge for the Wolves, batting .421 on the week with eight hits, a double, four RBIs, four runs scored and five stolen bases en route to earning GNAC Baseball Player of the Week honors. The highlight of Maiben’s week came in Sunday’s 12-4 win where he went 3 for 5 with three runs scored, two stolen bases and an RBI. Maiben leads the GNAC and ranks 15th in Division II with seven stolen bases and ranks third in the conference with a .371 batting average.

Senior Arturo Alvarez led Western Oregon on the mound, throwing seven innings while allowing just two hits and one walk with nine strikeouts as the starter in Saturday’s win. Alvarez ranks fourth in the GNAC with a 1.50 ERA through 12 innings of work. His 14 strikeouts rank fifth in the conference.

Western Oregon will not play again until it hosts Northwest Nazarene for the first game of the conference slate on March 3.

CALIFORNIA CATS: Central Washington finished off its road trip through the Golden State with a 1-4 record. The Wildcats dropped their game against Academy of Art 9-8 on Tuesday to open the week despite holding a two-run lead for five innings and scoring six runs in the final four frames. Their one win of the week came on Friday with a 6-0 shutout at Stanislaus State before a loss in the nightcap, 8-4. On Saturday, CWU fell in both games to Stanislaus 9-1 and 6-0.

Friday brought not only Central Washington’s win, but the performance that earned senior Brayde Hirai his second consecutive GNAC Baseball Pitcher of the Week award. Hirai earned recognition after throwing 8.1 innings of shutout work in the win, allowing nine hits and two walks while striking out a pair. In three starts, Hirai owns a 1.33 ERA that ranks third in the conference with two wins. He leads all GNAC pitchers with 20.1 innings pitched.

Junior outfielder Sam Lauderdale delivered the most pop for CWU last week, only batting .250 but leading the team with four RBIs on a pair of home runs. Lauderdale scratched across three of the Wildcats’ six runs in Saturday’s win and opened scoring with a solo shot in the third inning. He followed that up with a two-RBI single in the eighth. He ranks second in the GNAC with three home runs on the season.

Central Washington will return to action with a non-conference doubleheader against Saint Martin’s on Sunday in Ellensburg.

HOME SWEET HOME: Northwest Nazarene was the first team to return home with a split series against College of Idaho. The Nighthawks dropped the first game of the series 5-1 on Thursday before bouncing back with a 5-2 win on Friday. The action moved to Caldwell, Idaho for the remainder of the series where the NNU took a 6-4 win before dropping the finale 11-3 for Saturday’s doubleheader.

Sophomore Colby Moran was the most reliable bat for NNU, hitting .308 with two runs scored on four hits and four walks. Moran also added an RBI in the first game of the series and a double in the series finale. He ranks 14th in the GNAC with a .273 batting average and owns a .475 on base percentage.  

The Nighthawks’ scoring was led by sophomore Mason Leavitt who hit .273 on the week while leading the team with a .500 on base percentage. Leavitt drew five walks and scored three runs to lead the team. He also earned a steal in the Nighthawks’ Friday win.

Northwest Nazarene will host Colorado Mesa this week for a three-game series that begins on Thursday and ends with a doubleheader on Friday.

ON THE BOARD: Saint Martin’s went 1-3 on the week, dropping the first two games of its series against Oregon Tech 5-2 and 5-1 on Saturday. The Saints split on Sunday’s doubleheader, falling 3-2 in the first game before taking their first win of the season with a 7-2 victory.

It was another strong week for freshman Brady Bean, who hit .308 for the week with four hits, a double, three runs scored and four walks. Bean also led the Saints with a .471 on base percentage and was tied for the team lead in hits. His highlight of the week came in Sunday’s win where he went 2 for 3  while scoring the fourth run of the game. Bean leads all GNAC hitters with a .478 batting average and a .586 on base percentage. His .565 slugging percentage also ranks third in the conference.

Freshman Blaze Wong put together another strong performance in his second appearance on the mound for Saint Martin’s, throwing six innings in Saturday’s 5-2 loss while allowing one run on four hits and two walks with four strikeouts. Wong leads the GNAC with a 1.12 ERA across eight innings of work.

Junior Justice Yamashita was tagged with the loss in Saturday’s nightcap but flirted with history for much of the game as he took a no-hitter into the sixth inning. Through six innings of work, Yamashita allowed three runs on one hit, three walks and three errors.

Saint Martin’s will be back in action with a non-conference doubleheader against Central Washington on Sunday.