CWU baseball’s regular season has come to a close after their series of games against Montana State-Billings (MSUB) on May 4th & 5th. CWU came into the game in desperate need of a win, and were able to achieve just that with two victories in three games played. 

Coming into the series, CWU was in 3rd place in the GNAC, with MSUB trailing behind them in need of a sweep to keep their series alive. MSUB held a tie for 3rd place with CWU before their series against Western Oregon University, where they lost 5 games to the Wolves. 

Knowing that MSUB had their backs against the wall coming into the series, the CWU team and Head Coach Drew Storey had the idea in their minds that the Yellowjackets might switch up their play in order to win these crucial ball-games. 

“For them, it may change some things because they can’t afford to lose a game. So how they stack their pitching up against us might be a bit different than it was in the regular season,” Storey said. “Are they going to go with the rotation they’ve had expecting the results to be consistent? Or are they going to change things knowing that if, at any point, they win a game they’re done.” 

One may assume that the preparation for a series with playoff implications would be far different for a player, but CWU Catcher Austin Ohland doesn’t let the pressure of a big series affect his mentality heading in. 

“We know this is going to be a very different team than the team we played earlier in the year, but to an extent you have to understand that they’re going to be deflated after that weekend. At the end of the day it’s going to come down to who plays better this weekend,” said Ohland. “For me personally it’s trying to find that even keel and just play my game that I know I can play.” 

CWU would go on to defeat MSUB in two of their three games over the Thursday & Friday contests, taking the Yellowjackets down in game 1 of the series, winning 12-7, and continuing their winning ways in game 2, winning 5-1. 

The baseball team will go on to the GNAC playoffs starting Thursday, May 11th, and wrapping up the day following. Their first round opponents will be Northwest Nazarene University, the 2nd ranked team in the GNAC.