Sunday, May 8, 2022

PORTLAND, Ore. – It came right down to the final day of the regular season, but in the end Northwest Nazarene claimed the No. 1 seed in the GNAC Baseball Championships, which take place Thursday and Friday at the Western Oregon University Baseball Field in Monmouth.

The Nighthawks and Wolves tied in the regular-season standings at 21-11 and share the regular-season championship. Northwest Nazarene earned the tournament’s top-seed, however, based upon conference tiebreakers.

Northwest Nazarene (29-19 overall) enters hitting .274 as a team with a 4.26 ERA. The Nighthawks’ offense possesses a unique blend of contact and power, hitting tied for the most home runs in the conference (44) while striking out the fewest times (304, 40 less than the next-lowest team).

Western Oregon (31-17 overall) return to the tournament after health and safety protocols forced them to withdraw from the 2021 GNAC Championships. The Wolves have a conference-leading 3.99 ERA and their .976 team fielding percentage ranks fifth in all of Division II. Offensively, the Wolves use speed and contact to manufacture runs with a league-high 61 stolen bases and 31 sacrifice hits.

Montana State Billings (25-25 overall) locked down the No. 3 seed after going 16-16 in conference play and return to the tournament for the first time since 2019. The Yellowjackets can rake, as they have the highest batting average (.279), on-base percentage (.388) and slugging percentage (.447) of teams to qualify for the championships.

The GNAC Championships will begin Thursday with three games: Western Oregon vs. MSUB at 10 a.m., Northwest Nazarene vs. MSUB at 1 p.m., and Northwest Nazarene vs. Western Oregon at 4 p.m.

After day one, if teams are 2-0, 1-1 and 0-2, the 0-2 team is eliminated and the remaining teams will play on Friday. If there is a 1-1 tie after day one, the No. 1 team will automatically advance to the championship game. The No. 2 and 3 seeds will play a loser out game on Friday at noon.

Advance daily session tickets are available for purchase at GNACtickets.com and are priced at $10 for adults and $5 for seniors, students and children ages 6-14. Daily session tickets at the gate are priced at $12 for adults and $7 for seniors, students and children ages 6-14. Children 5 and under are free. Daily session tickets include admission to all games each day.