Monday, April 10, 2017
PORTLAND, Ore. – Baseball in the GNAC in 2017 has been characterized by its tight competition during conference play, but Central Washington pulled off just the second four-game sweep by any GNAC team during conference play this season, winning four in a row at Concordia to earn selection as the Red Lion/GNAC Team of the Week.
Concordia opened the weekend with a 7-1 victory, wrapping up a game that was halted in March for rain after Concordia led 3-0. Central Washington quickly bounced back with four wins in a row against Concordia over the next two days, including two one-run victories.
“I don’t care who you play,” Central Washington head coach Desi Storey said. “Anytime you can go out and take four in a weekend is an impressive feat. Our bats clicked this weekend and we found some consistency on Sunday that allowed us to score multiple runs in multiple innings.”
The Wildcats trailed 4-0 going into the sixth inning of the series opener when their bats lit up, scoring nine runs in the next four frames. Kyle Thompson came into the game in relief for three innings of one-run ball to pick up his second win of the season. Jake Levin got the start on the mound, but made his biggest contribution at the plate with a two-RBI single and a solo home run before being intentionally walked with the bases empty.
Central Washington needed more late-inning heroics to win the second game of the series. Originally scheduled to be a seven-inning game, CWU extended the game into extra innings with a five-run top of the seventh to knot the score at 5-5. The Wildcats scored those five runs without an extra-base hit and scored four of those runs with two outs. Rory Graf-Brennen entered the game in the sixth inning and in the top of the ninth hit a solo home run that proved to be enough for the 7-6 win.
The first game of Sunday’s doubleheader featured a pitching duel between Central Washington’s Griffin Davis and Concordia’s Tyler Charlton. The Wildcats held a narrow 1-0 lead after seven innings and Justin Hampson’s RBI squeeze bunt made the score 2-0 in the eighth inning. Despite walking the bases loaded to start the bottom of the eighth, CWU only allowed one run. Christopher Dalto did the damage control and only allowed one run to his credit in two innings of work to pick up his fifth save of the season.
Central Washington completed the sweep with a 7-3 victory in the series finale. JJ Asinas threw a complete game to earn the victory with five strikeouts, allowing three runs, two earned, five hits and four walks. Leftfielder James Smith went 2 for 3 with a hit by pitch. He drove in three runs on the two singles and scored once himself. Conor Plaisance also hit his 10th double of the season, which is tied for the best in the GNAC. In total, the Wildcats scored 26 of their 27 runs in the five games during the final four frames of each game.
Central Washington moved up to second in the GNAC standings with a 15-9 record while improving to 21-13 overall. The Wildcats have the second-best conference winning percentage behind Western Oregon and lead the conference in victories, both overall and in conference play. Their current four-game winning streak is two away from the longest GNAC winning streak this season. Central Washington will play at Saint Martin’s this week with doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday. The Wildcats will return home for an eight-game homestand that begins the following week.