By: Burke De Boer Sports Editor
For the 14th time in the past 17 years, Wolves baseball are the regular season GNAC champions.
The 2017 title was secured over the course of two days of action in Monmouth – the only baseball played on Western Oregon’s campus all year.
In two days of double headers against Northwest Nazarene, the Wolves won one and lost one on each day.
The first split came on May 4. The Wolves lost the home opener 2-5, then came thundering back to win the afternoon game 11-3.
That victory secured at least a share of the conference title.
The Wolves went into the third inning trailing 0-1 when they were able to open up scoring. First-year student Connor McCord hit a single with junior Garrett Anderson on base. A throwing error by the Northwest Nazarene infield brought Anderson across home plate.
The Wolves picked up five total runs in that inning alone, the start of a three-inning burst from the Wolves. They held an 11-2 lead in the fifth when the game was put on pause.
After a season full of games being canceled and relocated due to weather, it was only fitting that a game finally played in Monmouth would get a weather delay. The May 4 thunderstorm that swept across the Northwest sent a few bolts into the Monmouth-Corvallis area. Fans in the aluminum bleachers were encouraged to find shelter as the game was halted for 30 minutes.
When the game continued, the Wolves were able to coast on their huge lead to the victory.
In the second day of action, the Wolves put up an even bigger win, at 20-2. This game made the Wolves the outright regular season champions.
Seniors Joey Crunkilton and Brock Pradere and junior Jacob Martinez each scored three runs. Martinez recorded two doubles and three RBIs.
15 runs came in the first two innings.
“Going into every game we have the mentality of applying pressure first,” said Nyles Nygaard, junior third baseman, who had two runs and three RBIs in the win. “The first two innings were huge for us, we applied a ton of pressure which made us slow the game down and take quality at bats. It was a great team effort.”
Though this was the 14th time the Wolves accomplished this in the past 17 years, it was the first one in two years. After a 13-year streak, the last two seasons were dry ones for Western Oregon baseball.
First-year student Torreahno Sweet joined the team just in time to skip the two-year title gap. “Sweet T,” as his teammates call him, has made a quick impact, posting a batting average of .345 over the season. Only the veteran catchers, redshirt sophomore Justin Wakem and senior Boog Leach, had better averages.
“It was great to play with this group of guys,” Sweet said. “We are one big family and we play the game hard.”
The Wolves are the number one seed and will face Montana State Billings in the first round of the playoffs. In the regular season, Western Oregon went 7-1 in their eight games against the Yellowjackets, where they scored a total of 62 runs to average 7.75 runs a game.
“We are all excited,” Nygaard said. “We have practiced and prepared so much for big situations so we are ready to get after it.”
Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu
