By: Burke De Boer Sports Editor
The Wolves went 2-2 across a pair of doubleheaders over the weekend facing Concordia.
The matchup positioned the top of the GNAC Wolves against the conference’s bottom ranked team for a surprisingly even two days of competition. In the first day of games, Concordia cleaned house, as the Wolves lost 2-9 and 3-5 on April 21. They got back on track the second day, winning 5-1 and 6-0.
Concordia opened up scoring early in the first game, putting up two runs in the first inning on the starting pitcher, first-year student Connor McCord.
McCord would give up a total of five runs before being pulled. But even after pitching changed, Concordia runs kept coming in. Sophomore Jacob Fricke, first-year student Justin Dolezal and senior Alex Emerson would all serve time on the mound, giving up four more runs.
On offense, McCord was able to bat in the only two runs for the Wolves.
The second game of the day was much closer, and went into extra innings to reach a decision. Senior Justin Spinner and first-year student Hunter Johnson scored runs in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game. But two runs in the ninth secured the win for Concordia.
The Wolves regrouped and swept Concordia on April 22.
Junior Craig Grubbe pitched the first game, striking out seven on the way to the 5-1 victory.
“Two losses in a day is pretty strong fuel for a team,” said senior Joey Crunkilton. “We took those losses to heart and were able to use it to our advantage.”
Crunkilton had three runs over the two games. He also hit in two RBIs, batting in McCord and junior Jacob Martinez with a fourth inning double in the 6-0 second game victory.
Junior Nyles Nygaard helped lead the way in scoring, and batted in Crunkilton on a triple after Crunkilton’s fourth inning double. He also opened the scoring of the game with a solo home run.
With eight games left to play, the Wolves remain on the top of the GNAC standings. Their remaining games all come against second-place Central Washington and third-place Northwest Nazarene.
Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu
