Feb 26-28th Weekend Recap
I can’t tell you how excited I am to write this article. Not only is this the first recap article to go up on the site but the fact that college baseball is back in the NW is just awesome.
Cascade Collegiate League (NAIA)
Although the teams in the CCC have been playing for a few weeks it was a great weekend of matchups to kick off some coverage. Corban University was able to get their first three wins of the season as they defeated the College of Idaho in 3 of 4 games. Zack Simon (Corban) got the win in game 1 of the series pitching 6 innings and then followed that up in game 3 on the offensive side going 2-4 with a double, HR and 4 RBIs. Maxwell Jeffrey (Corban) also had a solid weekend going 6-16 with 2 doubles, a triple and 4 RBIs.
#17 LC State and Oregon Tech faced off in a four game series. LC State would win 3 out of 4 games in the matchup. Riley Way (LC) provided the spark for LC State in the leadoff spot with 7 hits and 5 runs scored over the weekend. Jacob Miller (OT) would come up big for Oregon Tech pitching 6 innings in relief, only allowing 1 hit, and earning a win.
Great Northwest Athletic Conference (NCAA D2)
Both Northwest Nazarene and Montana State Billings traveled to Grand Junction, CO for a pair of games against New Mexico Highlands and Colorado Mesa. Northwest Nazarene walked away from the weekend going 3-1, including a win over 5th ranked Colorado Mesa. Montana State Billings was able to score 36 runs on the weekend but went 0-4 as they weren’t able to shutdown the opposing offenses.
Central Washington faced off with St Martin’s in a four game set. All four games were won by no more than two runs as the teams split the series. Zach Berryman (CWU) and Tyler McClain (CWU) both started the season hot, each going 6-10 with McClain adding 4 RBIs on the weekend.
Northwest Conference (NCAA D3)
For the NWC this was the opening weekend and things were exciting across the board. Puget Sound came out firing on all cylinders offensively, scoring 33 runs in a three game sweep of Whitworth. Nathan Bloch (Puget) had 4 hits over the weekend including a homerun and 6 RBIs. Dylan Joyce had 5 hits and 4 RBIs, and pitched 1.2 innings giving up only 1 hit, earning his first save of the season.
Linfield and Pacific Lutheran split a 4 game series. Pacific Lutheran came out and won the first two games of the weekend but Linfield was able to respond with two wins on Sunday, including a walk off win thanks to a 2 out base hit by Chase Elliot.
Whitman and Willamette also split their 4 game series as they traded off wins over the weekend. Garrett Runyan started his college career for Whitman showing off his power with two homeruns over the weekend.
In another weekend split George Fox and Pacific University (Ore.) faced off. George Fox was able to win a pair of one run games to start the weekend but Pacific struck back on Sunday winning both games including on 16-0. Ian Blair (Pacific) went 3-5 with 3 RBIs in the blowout win.