Central baseball waits patiently to determine postseason fate

Honors were awarded this past weekend to Wildcat pitcher Zach Johnson who earned GNAC pitcher of the week for his performance against Saint Martin’s University (SMU). He threw a nine inning, complete shutout game against SMU.

The Wildcats now sit at a 23-24 overall record and are patiently awaiting Northwest Nazarene University’s (NNU) results from next weekend’s GNAC game to see who gets that last spot in the tournament.

NNU will have to lose this weekend to Western Oregon University in order for the Wildcats to move forward. The team has been working hard to ensure that they are ready and are hoping for the best outcome.

“Central has always been a rival to Western Oregon, so it’s not usual that we’re rooting for them, but we’re praying for a sweep,” junior first baseman Randy Fuller said. “I know that if Western sweeps next weekend, and we make the playoffs, we’re going to come into the playoffs ready to go, and I have no doubt that we can play as a team and come away with the championship.”

NNU has a 26-23 overall record heading into this weekend’s game and a 14-14 record in GNAC conference games. This weekend’s game could go either way at this point as they head to play Western Oregon.

Two spots have already been claimed by Western Oregon University and Montana State University Billings, who both hold the same record of 18-10, giving Central some competition leading into the tournament.

“Throughout the season, I feel we’ve been getting a lot closer and everyone is playing for each other and wanting to win for one another,” Fuller said. “This is a fun group of guys to be apart of and I feel we owe it to each other to finish  the season strong and get into the playoffs.”

Western Oregon has the best pitching team in the conference, with both Jesse Pratt and Damien Moran being named  GNAC pitchers of the week this season. If they pull through and beat out NNU next weekend, Wildcats will move forward.

Some of the Wildcat’s players to watch are senior catcher Jeff Beckman, senior infield Kasey Bielec and senior outfielder Cory Welch.

“I think we battled really well in all the games this last weekend, just unfortunately couldn’t get the fourth win,” Bielec said. ”But overall, I think we played well and played like our backs were against the wall, which they are.”

Bielec had the first hit of the game last weekend at the top of the fourth inning against SMU. Bielec also happens to be the leading hitter in the GNAC, giving the Wildcats the advantage at the plate.

The Wildcat’s have a pair of nonconference games versus Lewis & Clark State College on May 1 and 2.
“For this weekend, we’re looking to just kind of tune things up in order to get ready for the tournament, if we’re fortunate enough to make,” Bielec said. “We’ll be rooting for Western Oregon, hopefully they can take four games from Northwest Nazarene and give us the opportunity to go to the tourney.”