BELLEVUE, Wash. – The Western Oregon baseball team split their four-game series with the Central Washington Wildcats after the teams each took a win on Monday afternoon on the campus of Bellevue College.
Game one was a game of offense for both sides and a historic one at that. Western Oregon (7-3, 5-3 GNAC) set a Great Northwest Athletic Conference record for runs scored in the 32-14 victory, adding on 28 hits and 10 walks. The 28 hits finished one shy of the 2016 team's 29 for the school's NCAA-era record.
The Wolves grabbed the first lead of the game with three runs right off the bat in the top of the first inning off James Brooks. Central Washington (8-7, 5-3 GNAC) responded in kind with six runs of their own in the bottom of the first to double up WOU.
The score remained 6-3 with CWU on top through the third before Western Oregon opened the floodgates and poured out 10 runs in the fourth inning alone and 13 runs over the final three innings of play.
Seven players finished with multiple hits in game one for WOU, led by the five hits of both
Derek Maiben and
Justin Wakem. Wakem scored five runs while knocking in another five in his 5-for-6 appearance which included a double and a home run. The five hits ties Wakem and Maiben for the second-highest single-game total in the school's NCAA era. Only Greg McCarthy has managed six hits in a single game for WOU, completing the feat in April of 2005.
Patrick Chung went 4-for-6 with six RBI, two runs and a walk, adding on one of six team steals.
Despite sending 67 batters to the plate, the Wolves would be struck out just five times in the game.
The combined 46 runs was the most combined scoring the Wolves have seen in a game since 47 were scored in their 25-22 win over Central Washington May 10, 2002.
Game two's story turned out much like Sunday's second game for Central. The Wildcats overcame a late multi-run deficit, this time needing extra innings, to defeat the Wolves 8-7 on a walk-off single in the ninth.
Gabe Benavides provided four shutout innings for Western before the fifth got away from him. Leading 6-0 after the fourth, the Wolves saw their advantage slip away over the next two frames until CWU was able to tie the game in the sixth with Trevor Tripoli's RBI single.
Going to the bottom of the ninth locked up at 7-7, Jaden Hassell singled down the left field line to score Yi-an Pan from second and give the Wildcats their second walk-off victory of the series.
Derek Maiben again provided a multi-hit game for WOU, totaling seven hits, two of which were doubles, five runs and four RBI combined over the two games.
With the split series, WOU and CWU remained tied for first place atop the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings.
The official time of the two games was marked at over seven hours, coming in at 7:07 for the duration.
Next up for the Wolves is a four-game series at home against Concordia March 16 and 17. First pitch on Saturday in the first of two doubleheaders is set for 1 p.m. PDT at WOU Baseball Field.
