Softball Weekly Report

March 17, 2015 www.gnacsports.com (503-305-8756) Contact: Bob Guptill ([email protected]) Frontrunners Face Off Saturday and Sunday in Ellensburg GNAC Standings W Saint Martin’s 5 Western Oregon 5 Central Washington 6 Western Washington 4 Montana State Billings 3 Simon Fraser 1 Northwest Nazarene 0 L 1 1 2 4 5 3 8 W 19 10 12 11 10 10 2 L 12 12 7 9 13 10 17 H A N 11-3 2-6 6-3 7-1 0-0 3-11 4-0 4-6 4-1 4-2 3-5 4-2 0-0 4-8 6-5 2-4 5-3 3-3 1-3 0-10 1-4 Wildcats (12-7), who improved to 6-2 in the GNAC with a four-game sweep of Northwest Nazarene last weekend. Just two games back of the three frontrunners is Western Washington (11-9, 4-4), which opens a four-game series Friday at Northwest Nazarene (2-17, 0-8). Meanwhile, Simon Fraser (10-10, 1-3) travels to Billings for a four-game series with MSU Billings (10-13, 3-5). The games are the home openers for the Yellowjackets after beginning the season with 23 road games. LAST WEEK: Monday – Notre Dame de Namur 0-7 at Saint Martin’s 9-4. Tuesday – Notre Dame de Namur 0-3 at Saint Martin’s 2-5. Wednesday – Northwest Christian 0-4 at Western Oregon 2-10. Friday – Northwest Nazarene 1-2 at Central Washington 6-9; Western Washington 0-1 at Saint Martin’s 5-2; Simon Fraser at Western Oregon, 1 p.m. Saturday – Northwest Nazarene 5-2 at Central Washington 6-8. Sunday – Simon Fraser at Saint Martin’s, postponed; Western Washington at Western Oregon, rescheduled for April 2, 2:30 p.m. Central Washington will have to solve the offerings of Sam Munger if it hopes to slip past the Saints and/or Wolves into first place in the GNAC. Munger leads the GNAC in wins with 10 and is tied for the conference lead in strikeouts with NNU’s Ashley Pesek with 57. She also has the league’s second best ERA (1.88) after throwing 20 consecutive scoreless innings and three shutouts last week. THIS WEEK: Friday – Western Washington at Northwest Nazarene, 2 p.m. Saturday – Saint Martin’s at Central Washington, 1 p.m.; Simon Fraser at MSU Billings, 1 p.m.; Western Washington at Northwest Nazarene, noon. Sunday – Western Oregon at Central Washington, noon; Simon Fraser at MSU Billings, noon. Monday (March 23) – Walla Walla at Northwest Nazarene cancelled. Tuesday (March 24) – Walla Walla at Northwest Nazarene, cancelled. Munger, who now has a streak of 21 innings without surrendering a run, gave up 13 hits, walked seven and fanned 16 in earning GNAC Pitcher of the Week for the first time this season. In February, she was the recipient of the GNAC Player of the Week award an award she could have been a candidate for last week as she batted .500 (8-of-16) and stole three bases. HITTING STREAKS (8 or more): 11 – Sam Munger, SMU; Amanda Evola, WOU; Sammy Morris, SMU. 10 – *Amanda Evola, WOU; Lindsay Miller, SMU; Kaitlyn Campbell, CWU. 9 – Taviah Jenkins, SMU. 8 – *Amanda Evola, WOU; Ashley Pesek, NNU; Taylor Gillis, SFU; Taylor Lundrigan, SFU; Alicia Fine, WWU. *Current The Saints and Wildcats go into their series with the two best team batting averages in the GNAC. SMU is batting .330 and averages 5.3 runs per game. CWU is hitting .328 and scores a GNAC-best 5.6 runs per game. Wildcats Host Saints, Wolves In Key Twinbills The two teams also rank 1-2 in the GNAC in ERA; CWU at 2.72 and SMU at 2.94. PORTLAND, Ore. – Saint Martin’s (19-12 overall) and Western Oregon (10-12 overall) take 5-1 Great Northwest Athletic Conference records to Ellensburg Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Individually, Sammy Morris leads the Wildcats in hitting with a .405 average. Taviah Jenkins paces the Saints with a .404 average and is the conference leader in hits (38), runs scored (26) and RBIs (23). The Saints and Wolves begin the weekend tied for first place in the GNAC, just percentage points ahead of the Jenkins also ranks second in home runs with five in back of Emily Osborn of MSUB Billings who has six. 1