Baseball | 3/30/2009 7:00:04 PM

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 [Box score: Game 1]  [Box score: Game 2]

MONMOUTH, Ore. - Western Oregon and Central Washington split their doubleheader Monday, Mar. 30, as the Wildcats claimed a 5-1 win in game one before the Wolves' bats responded for a 9-4 win in game two.

WOU won three of the four games in the series to move to 14-7 on the season and 7-1 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference while extending its lead in the standings to three games. The losses dropped CWU to 7-17 on the season and 3-9 in the GNAC.

Game 1
Central Washington scored four runs in the top of the 10th inning to break a 1-1 tie as it went on to win game one 5-1.

Michael McCanna (2-2) pitched a complete game for the Wildcats, he as went 10 innings allowing one runs and eight hits while walking seven and striking out three.

Mike Eisenhauer started the game for Western Oregon and pitched eight innings allowing just six hits and an unearned run while walking two and striking out four.

The Wolves were down one run in the in the bottom of the seventh inning before Travis Fox doubled down the right field line to score pinch runner Alex Yeaney and knot the game at one apiece.

The game would go to extra inning by the same score but CWU would mount a rally in the top of the 10th to recapture the lead. The first two batters of the inning reached on errors then AJ Gosney singled in a run and Andrew Snowdon hit a double to drive in two more. He then scored on a double by Kevin Schneider to cap off the four-run inning for the Wildcats.

"We had no answer to their pitcher," Western Oregon head baseball coach Jeremiah Robbins explained. "He battled us throughout the game and Eisenhauer had some tough luck."

During the game, the Wolves committed three errors which led to all five of the Wildcats' runs and left 13 runners on base compared to seven for CWU.

"We have to play better small-ball," Robbins continued. "The little things come back to bite you in close games and we need to address that."

Travis Fox and Kyle Boe were the only Wolves' to record multiple hits in game one as Fox was 2-for-5 with a double and an RBI while Boe was 2-for-4.

Kirk Lind (2-1) suffered his first loss of the year as he was in his second inning of work out of the bullpen in the 10th inning when the defense allowed four unearned runs to score.

Game 2
Travis Fox, Thomas McCarthy and JJ Mascolo each had two RBI as the Wolves earned a 9-4 win in game two.

WOU jumped in front with a four-run second inning as it batted around. Justin Speer score the first run of the inning on a sacrifice fly by McCarthy then the Wolves mounted a two-out rally for another three runs. After Griffin Boyd singled and stole second Garrett Breda doubled to drive him in and then scored on a single by Mascolo. Mascolo scored the fourth run of the inning on a CWU error with two outs.

Western Oregon would single runs in the third and fourth inning before putting three runs up in the fifth to extend its lead to 9-0.

Jacob Pettit started the game for the Wolves and went 6.0 innings while allowing seven hits and four runs while striking out five to improve to 4-0 on the season. Pettit had a shutout going through five innings and had allowed only three hits but in the sixth the CWU got four runs on four hits.

Eight of the Wolves' nine starters collected hits in the game as WOU up 13 as a team. Western Oregon also stole four bases in the game, three of which lead to runs.

"Our hitters responded in the late game and it was good for us to take the series," Robbins noted. "That is our goal every week; to win the series."

Next series
The Western Oregon baseball team will continue it GNAC schedule Wed. Apr. 1, as it travels to Saint Martin's.