Tuesday, April 13, 2021

DALLAS, Texas – Zach Berryman has been everything Central Washington needed in a leadoff hitter in 2021.

After earning GNAC Baseball Player of the Week honors on Monday, the freshman outfielder was also named the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Division II West Region Player of the Week.

Berryman finished the week with a .533 batting average and a .619 on-base percentage as the Wildcats took three of four conference games at Saint Martin’s. He went 8 for 15 with nine runs scored, eight RBI, a double, four walks, a hit by pitch, a sacrifice fly and two stolen bases.

Berryman opened the series by going 1 for 3 with a run, a walk, a sacrifice fly and an RBI single in a 6-5 loss on Saturday. He went 1 for 3 with a run and a walk in the nightcap, a 4-0 victory.

The Wildcats’ weekend was highlighted by a 30-6 rout of the Saints in Sunday’s first game, falling just two runs short of the GNAC record of 32 runs, scored by Western Oregon on Mar. 11, 2019. Berryman went 5 for 7 in the game with five runs, five RBI, a double and a hit by pitch. He contributed an RBI single in the third inning, a two-run double in the fifth, another RBI single in the eighth and an RBI hit by pitch later in the eighth. His five runs tied the GNAC single-game record for runs scored in a game.

Berryman closed the week by going 1 for 2 with two runs, two walks and an RBI in Sunday’s 5-1 second-game victory. He leads the conference with a .573 on-base percentage and ranks second with a .464 batting average and sixth with 26 runs scored.

Central Washington sits in third place with a 9-7 conference record (11-9 overall) and stays put at No. 6 in the latest NCBWA Division II West Region Rankings. The Wildcats will be back in action on Saturday and Sunday for a four-game conference series at Western Oregon.