ELLENSBURG, Wash. – Coming off of a home split against Saint Martin's, the Western Oregon University baseball team will hit the road this week when they travel to Ellensburg to face Central Washington for a four-game series beginning Saturday.
It will be the official start of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference season, as the Wolves will now play a home-and-home series with the other four teams in the conference.
The offense came out firing in the first games in a year as WOU tallied 35 hits in posting a .473 average in just 16 innings. Sixteen players collected at least a hit, with nine having multi-hit games and both Jacob Maiben and David Gibons tied with six hits apiece.
Jacob Maiben leads the team through the first two games with a blistering .750 batting average that also included four RBI and two runs scored. Gibons adds a .667 average with two doubles and three runs scored. Derek Maiben holds a .400 average with four RBI to tie his brother Jacob for the team lead. Blayze Arcano sits third in RBI having driven in a trio of runs and is hitting .500. So far, 10 players are hitting over .500 in Connor McCord, Josh Berman, Jacob Maiben, Gibons, Hunter Johnson, Anthony Zellner, Arcano, Justyn Herzog, Sam Jones and Ryan Witt.
On the mound, Logan Hatley is coming off of his GNAC Pitcher of the Week award after throwing four innings to get the win in game two. He allowed just one unearned run on two hits and a pair of walks while striking out seven. Matthew Dunaway also impressed in his debut for the Wolves going four shutout innings in which he posted eight strikeouts and allowed just two hits. Joe Kinsky also holds a 0.00 ERA through the first weekend as he worked an inning in relief and allowed just a hit. Mike Peterson got the start in the first game and went three innings allowing just one earned run. Nick Parr worked three innings in relief in game two and also just allowed an earned run. As a staff, WOU has a 3.38 ERA and has tallied 22 strikeouts.
WOU currently leads Division II in batting with the .473 average. The Wolves also rank high nationally in several other categories including 25th in ERA (3.38), 14th in hits allowed per nine innings (6.19), second in on-base percentage (.511), ninth in scoring (12), 14th in slugging percentage (.581), 28th in stolen bases per game (2), 23rd in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.14), eighth in strikeouts per nine innings (12.4), fifth in triples per game (1) and 15th in WHIP (1.12).
WOU will face Central Washington as the Wildcats are off to a 2-2 start to the season playing a home-and-home series with the team the Wolves just faced in Saint Martin's. All four games were close with seven runs deciding the series, as neither team won by more than two runs.
CWU is hitting .345 as a team, picking up 41 hits and 26 RBI. Michael Peter leads the team with a .667 average collecting four hits and four RBI. Zach Berryman and Tyler McClain are both hitting .600 and have six hits apiece, while McClain has driven in four runs. The Wildcats have five players hitting over .500.
On the mound, Brayde Hirai has tossed the most innings with 5.2 allowing a 4.76 ERA. Other starters include Dillon Larsen going four innings with a 9.64 ERA, Tyler Hoefer throwing three innings with a 12.00 ERA and Reid Rasmussen went 1.2 innings and has a 5.40 ERA. Six pitchers have made scoreless appearances with Dylan Weese throwing the most innings at 2.1. As a staff, the Wildcats have a 6.75 ERA.
WOU has held a strong advantage in the series since 2002 going 117-44, including a solid balance of a 57-18 home record and 53-24 away record. Last time out, the teams played last year in Ellensburg in the final weekend before the season was suspended and the teams split the four-game series.
WOU and CWU will play a pair of doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday starting at 12 p.m. each day. Live video can be found here and live stats can be found here.
