Baseball in Fresno this week looking to open season on Thursday

FRESNO, Calif. — A week after their potential season-opening series was cancelled due to weather, the Western Oregon baseball team will try again this weekend to get their 2020 season underway when they visit the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds for a four-game series at FPU Diamond.

The Wolves are coming off of a season in which they went 30-13 overall and 26-11 in GNAC play. WOU dominated at home going 15-3, while holding a solid 13-8 record away from Monmouth in true road contests. It was a strong finish to the 2019 season for the Wolves as they went 11-1 to end the regular season that included sweeps of Central Washington and Saint Martin's. WOU then opened the GNAC Tournament strong with a resounding 10-2 win over Northwest Nazarene before falling to eventual champion Montana State Billings and Saint Martin's in the next two games.

The team took home multiple accolades in 2019 with 11 being named All-GNAC. Alex Roth was selected as the Pitcher of the Year and Jacob Maiben as the Freshman of the Year. Landing on the first team was Roth, Austin Crowson, Jared McDonald, Patrick Chung, Collin Runge, Connor McCord and Griffey Halle. Five also earned Academic GNAC honors in McDonald, Dylan Myers, Cam Nowack, Cam Walker and David Wallum.

McCord has been named an NCBWA Preseason All-West Region and All-American honoree after an outstanding junior campaign.

Last season, the Wolves were able to win five straight games to start the year on their way to a 12-3 record through the first month of play. They were able to win at least five consecutive games on four separate occasions with their longest win streak hitting eight games.

Fresno Pacific (2-4) carries a four-game losing streak into this weekend. After taking two of three over Sonoma State to begin the year, they were swept in a three-game series against Chico State last weekend to fall to two games under .500 through their first two series.

Two players are hitting over .400 for the Sunbirds through six appearances, led by the .455 batting average of Andrue Lackey. Matt McGrady is not far behind with a .435 mark along with two doubles and two home runs to lead the team in slugging percentage at .783.

Defensively, FPU has a 7.82 team ERA through 48.1 innings of work. Esteban Lizaola, Justin Fuson and Matt Stearns have each made two starts for the team.

WOU is 1-1 against FPU in their only series played since Western joined the NCAA. The Wolves won the first of the doubleheader back on Feb. 9, 2017, by a score of 7-5 while the Sunbirds earned a shutout in the second game with a 7-0 win. This will be their second meeting in Fresno.

A single game between the teams will be played Thursday, Feb. 13, at 6 p.m. PST. A doubleheader will follow on Friday, Feb. 14, at 2 p.m. and the series will close with a single game on Saturday, Feb. 15, at 12 p.m. PST. Live stats and video will be available here.

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