EUGENE, Ore. – The Western Oregon University baseball team closes out a nine-game road trip facing Bushnell in Eugene this Tuesday starting at 4 p.m. This will also conclude the non-conference portion of the schedule for the Wolves.
WOU has gone 5-3 on the current road trip splitting four games at Montana State Billings and then going 3-1 at Central Washington this past weekend.
The Wolves enter the week 24-15 overall and 15-9 in GNAC play, later hosting Northwest Nazarene this Friday and Saturday in Monmouth with the teams separated by one game for the top spot in the conference standings. WOU will then close the GNAC part of the regular season on May 5-6 at Saint Martin's. The GNAC Championships take place May 12-13 in Monmouth hosted by WOU.
WOU cruised to the 13-4 win during the earlier meeting at home against Bushnell on Mar. 22. Nine players had a hit for the Wolves with Spencer Weston going 3-5 with four RBI and Hibiki Ouchi adding a pair of hits. Darian Noll drove in two runs. On the mound, Dominic Miller picked up his first win of the season tossing two scoreless innings. Curran Mitzel, Seth Kuykendall and Sebasten Boivin all worked scoreless outings against Bushnell.
The Maiben twins continue to lead the offense with Jacob Maiben hitting .348 and Derek Maiben at .319. John Stark had a big weekend in Ellensburg launching four home runs and leads the team with nine on the year. Jackson Holstad is tied with Derek Maiben for the team lead in RBI with 28. Justyn Herzog is tied with Stark for third on the team in RBI at 22. Derek Maiben has 17 steals and Jacob Maiben adds 13.
On the mound, Parker Johnson collected his team-best seventh win of the season against the Wildcats, holding a 4.02 ERA in 40.1 innings, adding 35 strikeouts. Arturo Alvarez also added a win against Central Washington to improve to 5-0 on the year with a 3.04 ERA in 47.1 innings. He has 31 strikeouts. Kuykendall tallied his fourth win of the season picking up a win against the Wildcats. He has tossed 31.1 innings and has 38 strikeouts to just six walks. Boivin and Bryce Bond each add two wins while Michael Moore, Miller, Mike Peterson and Joe Kinsky have the other victories. Kuykendall, Moore and Chris Hardin lead the team with two saves apiece.
Bushnell is 11-33 on the season, going 9-12 at home. The Beacons played their past five games at home going 2-3 dropping the first game to Willamette and then splitting a four-game set with the University of British Columbia.
Jeff Fripp leads the team hitting .314, with seven home runs and 25 RBI. Kyle Casperson is hitting .307 with eight RBI. Jacob Stoner adds 24 RBI. On the mound, Abbott Haffar has three wins in 47.2 innings, along with 44 strikeouts. Adam Sabatino and Jahshua Yacapin have a pair of wins on the season working roughly 50 innings each.
Live video and stats will be available for the game. Live video can be found here and live stats can be found here.
