Wednesday, May 26, 2021

PORTLAND, Ore. – After leading Northwest Nazarene to its first GNAC Championship since 2016, head coach Joe Schaefer was named the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) West Region Coach of the Year and leads a group of 18 conference players named to the NCBWA and Division II Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) All-West Region Teams.

Schaefer led Northwest Nazarene to a 31-7 overall record and a 21-3 conference mark to claim the regular-season title. The Nighthawks earned the conference’s automatic qualifier to the NCAA Championships after beating Central Washington in a best-of-three series at the GNAC Championships. The Nighthawks will enter the West Regional as the No. 2 seed and will host the tournament at their own Vail Baseball Field in Nampa, Idaho.

The GNAC saw 15 players selected to the NCBWA All-West Region Team, seven of whom earned first-team honors. The conference landed 11 players and six first-team honorees on the D2CCA All-West Region Team.

Montana State Billings junior shortstop Will Riley and senior designated hitter Daniel Cipriano, Northwest Nazarene junior pitcher Max Holtzclaw and freshman outfielder Grant Kerry and Western Oregon senior pitcher Mike Peterson and senior first baseman Connor McCord were all consensus First Team All-West Region selections. Central Washington senior outfielder Justin Hampson earned first-team honors from the NCBWA.

Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene also landed four second-team selections apiece on the NCBWA All-West Region Team. Earning honors from the Wildcats are senior pitcher Dillon Larsen, freshman pitcher Reid Rasmussen, freshman catcher Austin Ohland and sophomore outfielder Zach Berryman. Selections from the Nighthawks include freshman pitcher Kyle Ethridge, junior second baseman Colton Moore, senior third baseman Shawn Grandmont and senior utility player Ben Johnson.

Grandmont and Ethridge were consensus Second Team All-West Region selections while Western Oregon junior shortstop Derek Maiben, senior outfielder Blayze Arcano and sophomore pitcher Matthew Dunaway earned second-team nods from the D2CCA.

Riley ranks third in the GNAC in batting average (.401), fifth in on-base percentage (.484) and sixth in slugging percentage (.662). He leads the conference with 63 hits and 16 doubles and is second with 42 runs scored.

Cipriano batted .333 in 2021 and is fourth with a .702 slugging percentage. He drove in 52 runs and is tied for the conference lead with 14 homers. Cipriano set the GNAC career record for home runs in conference games with 29. He finishes his Yellowjacket career with 39 homers and 128 RBI and ranks No. 1 on the GNAC All-Time List with a .765 slugging percentage.

Holtzclaw is 4-0 on the season and owns a 2.45 earned run average. He struck out 37 batters and leads the conference with five saves in 16 appearances. Holtzclaw threw the final 1.2 innings in the GNAC Championships, allowing one earned run on three hits with three strikeouts to secure the Nighthawks’ first conference title in five years.

Kerry was named the GNAC Newcomer of the Year after two years at Boise State. He is in the conference’s top-10 in batting average (.369), on-base percentage (.455) and slugging percentage (.667). Kerry is second in the conference with 52 hits and third with 48 RBI and 11 home runs.

Peterson earned GNAC Pitcher of the Year honors after posting a perfect 6-0 record in the regular season. He allowed 18 runs, 16 earned, on 37 hits with 30 strikeouts. Peterson ranks second with a 3.40 ERA as the Wolves claimed the No. 3 seed in the West Regional.

The GNAC Player of the Year, McCord leads the conference with a .864 slugging percentage and is fourth with a .395 batting average and a .485 on-base percentage. McCord scored 24 times and drove in 33 runs, leading the Wolves with nine homers and 11 doubles.

Hampson finished the season batting .465 with a .542 on-base percentage and a .746 slugging percentage. He tallied 33 hits, 22 runs scored and 15 RBI and leads the conference with four triples.

Azusa Pacific’s A.J. Woodall was named the West Region Pitcher of the Year by both the NCBWA and the D2CCA. The Cougars’ Aaron Roose was named the West Region Player of the Year by the NCBWA while teammate Osvaldo Tovalin earned the honor from the D2CCA.

The Cougars enter the West Regional as the No. 1 seed and earned a first-round bye in the double-elimination tournament. The regional begins at noon on Thursday with Northwest Nazarene playing Western Oregon. The winner will play Azusa Pacific at 3:30 p.m.