Simson Garcia | Sports Editor
No more rainouts, no more postponements and clear low 50 degree weather allowed for more spring baseball as Western split a four game series with the Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks on March 30-31. In their first home field games of the season, the Wolves were the first to punch with a small dose, winning 1-0 on March 30.
A right field double run by senior right-fielder Jacob Martinez batted in sophomore pinch runner Torreahno Sweet in the fifth inning. Both mounds minimized batting at the plate in the game, but a walk to Sweet to begin his roundabout back home was all the Wolves needed for the lone score.
Their play in the back end of the first doubleheader fell on the wayside, however, as the visiting Nighthawks capped the day off with a 7-2 victory.
Three walks and 11 hits by the Nighthawks made for the sizable advantage. In all, the Wolves used six pitchers but couldn’t keep the opposition from reaching home.
Game three kept both teams off their heels as a walk-off double ran in Martinez for the clinching 3-2 win on March 31. In what went down as one of the longest games in GNAC history, the Wolves finally maneuvered in the 14th as sophomore infielder Connor McCord RBI’d Martinez.
“It was a constant mental grind because of how close we were to scoring in almost every extra inning,” said Jay Leverett, senior infielder.
The final weekend game came almost three and a half hours later with Northwest Nazarene getting the final say: 5-4. It was a climb for the Wolves being down 5-0 going into the bottom of the fourth. Leverett helped close the gap with an RBI single, and scored himself soon after to cut the deficit to two. But with two men on base in the sixth frame, a Wolf fly out ended the affair.
Baseball season may have started slow to begin but Western currently stands one game above .500 at 14-13 and have fared well since playing their conference games, boasting a 14-6 record.
Next up, the Wolves hit the road to face Montana State University Billings on April 6-7, in two sets of back-to-back doubleheaders.
Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu
Photo by: wouwolves.com
