BY DILLON PETERSON

Staff Reporter

The Central Washington University baseball team (28-15 overall, 17-11 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) plays Saint Martin’s University (15-28, 11-17) in a two-game doubleheader May 3-4.

Central is coming off a four-game series against Montana State University-Billings where they won three out of four games, outscoring the Yellowjackets 44-24.

Last time Central faced off against Saint Martin’s was in late March. The Wildcats took three out of four games in the series, outscoring the Saint’s 19-14.

“Our main focus is to keep the same thing going as we’ve been doing over the last two weeks,” senior pitcher Skye Adams said. “We have been swinging the bat really well, our pitching staff has been keeping us there with each game.”

Central currently sits in second place in the conference and has a playoff berth secured. On the other hand, Saint Martin’s is one and a half games behind Northwest Nazarene University for third place in the conference.

“The game plan is to take it one game at a time,” senior outfielder Ethan Sterkel said. “Saint Martins is a good team. They took two from Western Oregon this weekend so [we need to] take it one game at a time and come out with as many W’s as we can.”

Saint Martin’s has an infield made of turf, which makes the play of the field a little faster with more consistent grounders for the infielders, unlike Central’s all grass field. However, central is not completely inexperienced on Saint Martin’s field.  They competed there last year in the GNAC tournament.

“I would rather play at home because it’s my last year,” Sterkel said. “It’s a familiar place, it’s were the tournament was held last year and I feel comfortable there.”

Central will finish second in the conference regardless of this weekends scores, and are looking forward to this last series. The Wildcats are also looking to play more consistently to prepare for the GNAC tournament.

With Saint Martin’s sitting just outside of the third and final tourney spot, it is a serious four-game series for them.

“We finish in second regardless so we know we’re the second [seed] whether we get four or not,” head coach Desi Storey said. “If we get four, great, but we want to get tuned up for the league championship series and hopefully keep the hitting going.”

After this week’s four-game series, Central’s baseball will be going into the league playoffs; either playing Saint Martin’s or Northwestern Nazarene University.