THE SCHEDULE
at the 2017 GNAC Baseball Championships
Porter Park • Portland, OR
 
Game 45
vs. Montana State Billings (23-27, 21-19 GNAC)
Wednesday, May 10 • 7 p.m.
Live Video/Stats
 
Game 46
vs. TBD
Thursday, May 12 • 12 p.m. (elimination game) or 3:30 p.m. (winner's bracket);  7 p.m. elimination game (if necessary)
Live Video/Stats
 
Final
vs. TBD
Friday, May 12 • 12 p.m. (2:30 p.m. if necessary)
Live Video/Stats

Twitter: @WOUBaseball | #GNACbaseball

The Western Oregon baseball team makes the trip up the I-5 corridor to Portland for the 2017 Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) Baseball Championships. The four-team, double-elimination event runs Wednesday through Friday, May 12-14, at Porter Park, home of league member Concordia University. The Wolves (28-15, 27-12 GNAC) take on Montana State Billings (23-27, 21-19 GNAC) to being the tournament in the second game of the opening day, at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 12. WOU finished in first place in the GNAC for a record 14^th time in 17 years. MSUB tied for third in the league, but lost out the No. 3 seed to Northwest Nazarene via a tiebreaker.
 
WOU is making a fifth straight GNAC Baseball Championships appearance since the league began a postseason tournament in 2013. If the Wolves win on Wednesday night, the would play again at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday. If they lose on Wednesday, the would face the first elimination game on Thursday at 12 noon. Friday's final is set for a 12 p.m start, with an if-necessary meeting slated for 2:30 p.m. The GNAC Baseball Championships winner does not earn an automatic berth into the NCAA Championships.
 
The Wolves and Yellowjackets began their league play against each other this year, with the Wolved sweeping a four-game series set at Porter Park, the Morse Athletic Complex in Newberg and, finally, finishing with a few innings completed in Billings. WOU then won three of our four games in Billings to hold a 7-1 advantage in the season series entering the playoffs.
 
TICKET PRICES
Adult session passes at Porter Park are $10 and an all-tournament pass is available for $18. Discounts are available for students (with proper identification), seniors (65 and over) and children with passes for $6 and all-tournament passes for $12. Children ages two and under are free.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
Every game of the 2017 GNAC Baseball Championships will have live video and stats provided by the league. MSUB's Evan O'Kelly will call the action online. Starting lineups, live updates and other gameday news can be found following WOU Athletics on Twitter (@WOUWolves).
GNAC CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY
The GNAC Championships open with Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene playing each other at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday followed by Western Oregon and MSU Billings meeting at 7 p.m. This is the first year that the tournament has been expanded to four teams. The tournament is in its fifth year of existence with Western Oregon winning the tournament in 2013 and 2015 while Central Washington took home the trophy in 2014. Northwest Nazarene won on its home field in 2016.

QUICK STATS 

Stat	WOU	CWU	NNU	MSUB
AVG	.303	.294	.276	.283
ERA	4.43	5.04	5.88	6.17
FLD%	.972	.957	.951	.948
R	261	290	289	328
2B	75	105	79	98
3B	10	4	5	16
HR	9	36	62	44
BB	184	166	181	188
SO	191	274	328	366
SB	54-79	29-43	44-64	65-91

 
ALL-GNAC WOLVES
The Western Oregon baseball program had league-high 10 players selected to the 2017 All-Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) teams, with two players and head coach Kellen Walker earning three of the five special awards recognized by the league head coaches. Walker was named GNAC Coach of the Year, utility player Connor McCord earned Freshman of the Year and junior infielder Nyles Nygaard was named league Newcomer of the Year. Three Wolves were chosen to the All-GNAC First Team in junior pitcher Brady Miller, sophomore catcher Justin Wakem and junior second baseman Jay Leverett. Five teammates merited spots on the All-GNAC Second Team – freshman pitcher Kade Mechals, senior pitcher Trey Smith, Nygaard at third base, senior designated hitter Joey Crunkilton and senior outfielder Brock Pradere. McCord and junior outfielder Jacob Martinez picked up All-GNAC honorable mention.
 
NCAA RANKINGS
Western Oregon as a team is ranked in the top-50 in the country in a number of categories: 

• 8^th in sacrifice bunts - 54
• 12^th in fielding percentage - .972
• 34^th in on-base percentage - .407
• 44^th in hit by pitch - 63
• 48^th in hits allowed per nine innings – 9.06

 
WALKER IN YEAR FIVE, GNAC 100 ATTAINED
Head coach Kellen Walker is his fifth year at the helm of the Wolves. Walker had led WOU to a 152-104 (.594) overall record in his tenure, including an 118-57 (.674) mark in GNAC competition. Walker reached 100 wins in GNAC play with an 8-1 victory at Saint Martin's (Ravensdale Park – Ravensdale, WA) on March 25, 2017.
 
ROSTER BREAKDOWN
Western Oregon's 37-man opening day active roster features nine seniors, 15 juniors, four sophomores and nine freshmen. The Wolves are a geographically diverse team with six states represented. Twelve players hail from Oregon and nine from California. The states of Arizona and Washington each have six players while Nevada is represented by three and Hawaii has one.
 
WOU NOTES
Western Oregon won seven of eight games against Montana State Billings while splitting eight games with both Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene. The Wolves' first two wins against the Crusaders began an eight-game winning streak that was the longest in the GNAC this year. The Wolves scored a season-high 20 runs in the penultimate game of the regular season and did so without hitting a home run all game. Western Oregon has proven all season that power isn't needed to put runs on the board with only nine of 399 hits leaving the park all year.
Justin Wakem paces the team's .303 batting average, hitting .367 with five doubles as his only extra-base hits. One of the keys to that high batting average is that Western Oregon has struck out 83 times less than any other GNAC team. Jacob Martinez ranks as one of the toughest players to strike out in NCAA Division II with just nine strikeouts in 173 plate appearances.
 
MBUB NOTES
Montana State Billings enters the tournament as the league's hottest team with nine wins in the last three series and is looking to overcome the team it lost to seven times in the regular season. The Yellowjackets boast the league's most productive offense, scoring 328 runs despite ranking third in batting average. They lead the league in extra-base hits (154), walks (188) and stolen bases (65). From a statistical standpoint, nobody represents the MSUB offense better than Zach Robinson. The senior ranks fourth on the team in batting average at .308, but leads the team in extra-base hits (20), walks (34) and stolen bases (17). He has also scored a program-record 51 runs.
 
CWU NOTES
Central Washington matches up well with all of the other three teams in the tournament, having split with all three teams during the regular season for a combined record of 12-12. The Wildcats also have a pitching staff that is built for tournament play. The team leader in innings pitched is Jake Levin, who has recorded wins in five of his last six decisions and averages six innings per start. Throughout most of the GNAC season, left-hander Mackenzie Gaul got the start in the second game of each series. He hurled three complete-game shutouts and struck out a league-best 68 batters with a 6-2 record and 3.06 ERA. After that, head coach Desi Storey can turn to his 6-foot-3 right-hander Griffin Davis or freshman JJ Asinas to take the start on the mound.
 
NNU NOTES
Defending champion Northwest Nazarene has hit a league-best 62 home runs, which has been a big reason for its success this year. The trouble for the Crusaders at this year's GNAC Championships is that Porter Park is the most difficult field in the GNAC to hit a home run. During their first visit to Porter Park this year early in March, the Crusaders launched two home runs in the series opener, the only ones of the series. Senior Andrew Hemlstadter hit one of those two home runs and enters the tournament just one double away from becoming the fifth player in GNAC history to reach 50 career doubles. Billy King had to settle for finding the alleys for extra-base hits the last time he was in Portland, but the two-time GNAC Player of the Week has hit a league-best 14 home runs this year.