By JACOB HANSEN Staff Writer
Western men’s baseball team traveled to La Jolla, Calif. to play nationally ranked No. 15 University of California, San Diego last week in efforts to tune up for the regular season.
The Wolves (0-4) lost all four games but managed to start a comeback run in the last game of the tournament. They were in a comeback winning position until a two-run homerun during UCSD’s (4-0) last at bat put the game out of reach.
“UC San Diego is one of the best division two teams in the country and was a challenge for us as a team,” said outfielder Matt Taylor. “We schedule to play these nationally ranked top teams to prepare us for a regional title.”
During the first day of competition the Wolves played a double header losing 0-4 in the first game and 3-8 in the second. Taylor and infielder Jake Whisler registered multiple hits with Taylor recording three hits that included the Wolves’ first runs batted in of the season in the second game.
The next day the Wolves fell to the Tritons 5-12 in a scoring frenzy.
“The games down here in California are extremely important for setting us up to get where we want to in the end and that’s at West Regional,” said Whisler.
“The key lessons that the team is learning are adversity with all the travel and already being 0-4, we have a lot of work to do that continues tomorrow against PLNU.”
The Wolves’ have won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference baseball title for their league every year since 2002. Head coach Kellen Walker was named GNAC coach of the year in 2013 and is responsible for an outstanding overall record of 276-138 for the wolves.
Western Oregon continued its week-long Southern California road trip on Thursday, Feb. 5, as they traveled to Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, Calif.
“The games in California helps to unite us as a team and sets us up so that we can prepare for a regional come the end of May,” said pitcher Spencer Trautmann.
The Wolves will play the Sea Lions four times over a three-day period.
“We look forward to competing against Point Loma and taking what we learned from UCSD and applying it to this next series,” Taylor said. “Guys are discovering who they are as hitters and how they can help us get a win at the end of the day. We are confident that we are the best team in the GNAC and expect nothing less that to win our conference.”
The Wolves first conference game is on Feb.28 against Saint Martin’s University in Lacy, Wash.
