Anyone who showed up five minutes late for the CWU baseball game would have found junior pitcher Seth Pederson on the mound for the Wildcats, even thought he was technically not the starter.

Senior pitcher Jake Levin walked the second hitter of the game and he did not like that call whatsoever. Levin began arguing with home plate umpire Russ Waterman and he ejected Levin on the spot.

He “lost his composure, that’s the bottom line,” head coach Desi Storey said. “It’s the second hitter of the game you have to keep your mouth shut, go back to work.”

The ejection caused Levin to be suspended for the rest of their series against the Western Oregon University (WOU) Wolves. Levin has not only been CWU’s ace pitcher this season, but has contributed at the plate hitting .325.

CWU got swept by WOU 6-4 and 11-7 Friday afternoon. These losses for CWU extend Western Oregon’s lead in the GNAC to five games, basically clinching them the conference title.

“We got to be better all around, we’re capable of being better,” Storey said. “We just didn’t perform very well today.”

Game one

Pedersen has made 11 appearances pitching for the Wildcats this season, while starting three games.

“Once we saw what happened I had an idea [I was coming in],” Pedersen said. “They know I have the ability to pitch deep into a game.”

Pedersen agreed Waterman had a tight strike zone.

“There were balls that were middle-in, probably over the plate that weren’t getting called,” Pedersen said. “I’ve had my share of run-ins with umpires before and when you get an umpire who wants to be assertive early you just have to roll with the punches.”

Junior infielder Garrett Anderson put WOU on the board first with a single to left field. CWU answered back in the second inning with a fielder’s choice by Chris Dalto, which scored a runner from third.

WOU added two more runs in the third inning, highlighted by a solo home run by senior outfielder Joey Crunkilton. CWU answered once again, scoring on a wild pitch and an RBI-double by senior outfielder Conor Plaisance, tying the game at 3-3.

WOU extended their lead to 6-3 in the ninth inning. CWU’s Rory Graf-Brennen tried to lead a comeback for the Wildcats with a double that scored an unearned run, but was unsuccessful in the end. Graf-Brennen finished hitting 4-for-5.

“They were throwing the ball down-and-in, I was just seeing the ball really well,” Graf-Brennen said.

Game 2

Things began to get out of hand for the Wolves in the fourth inning. Leading 4-3 in the sixth inning, WOU walked in three straight runs and hit one batter to score another runner.

Suddenly, WOU was going into their final at-bats down 7-4. Dalto, the closer, struggled to close the game out. A wild pitch, sacrifice fly and RBI-single tied up the game at 7-7.

CWU threatened to win the game in their part of the seventh inning after a hit-by-pitch and sacrifice bunt moved the runner to second base. CWU could not end the game in the seventh inning.

“At that point I needed to get a guy in scoring position,” Storey said.

WOU added four runs in the eighth inning, putting the game out of reach.

“First thing first is taking care of the baseball,” Pedersen said. “Late in that game things started getting out of hand.”

Next up

CWU will face WOU in a doubleheader on Saturday. First pitch is at noon.