Western baseball rules conference early

A little over a month remains in the season for Western's baseball team, and so far, things are looking right as rain for the squad. The Wolves, the only baseball champions the conference has seen in its existence, currently hold a four-game lead in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) standings at 18-7-1 overall and 11-1-1 in the conference. The tied game was the result of a weather postponement against Saint Martin's on March 14 when the teams were knotted 4-4 in the tenth inning. The game was scheduled to be completed on March 24 with the second game of the original doubleheader to follow, but it has not occurred yet. Ranked No. 18 in the nation, the Wolves began the season slowly. Western faced off against then-No. 7 Chico State for a four-game series, but only came away with one victory. The following weekend, however, the Wolves won three of four games against then-No. 4 UC San Diego, a huge morale boost for the squad. Aside from a relatively poor performance in the Central Washington Invitational Tournament, Western has been well in control since the California road trip. Four of the team's losses came at the hands of teams ranked top ten in the country, while the other three were to Central Washington, the GNAC's second-place team. The Wolves are only 3-3 against the Wildcats this season. The batters for the team tend to hit well against left-handed starters, going 8-1 so far this season against southpaws. They also tend to score many runs in the middle portion of games, scoring over one third of their runs in the fourth and fifth innings this year. The top players at the plate for the Wolves have been Travis Fox, Thomas McCarthy, Jason Moseby, and Justin Speer. Fox, a senior, leads off for the Wolves and leads the team in runs (25) and stolen bases (7). McCarthy, only a freshman, is the Wolves' most efficient batter as he has the top batting average and on-base percentage in the team, hitting .469 and .507, respectively. Moseby is number two on the team in many categories, including batting average, on-base percentage, runs batted in, and total runs. The junior leads the team with 13 walks. Senior Speer is the team's best power hitter, leading the team in total bases (59), runs batted in (28), and homeruns (5). As one might expect from a dominant team, the Wolves also have a solid pitching staff. An early-season injury to star freshman pitcher Kirk Lind didn't slow down the team as Mike Eisenhauer, Jacob Pettit, and Blake Keitzman have stepped up on the mound. Eisenhauer, the conference's defending pitcher of the year, is 2-1 with a 4.05 earned run average (ERA). The senior's toughest competition to win another pitcher of the year award comes from within the team as juniors Keitzman and Pettit have produced so far this season for the Wolves. Keitzman, a transfer from Oregon State, is more of a shut-down pitcher as he has thrown 48 strikeouts on his way to a 3-0 record in eight starts. Pettit, on the other hand, has supreme control in his pitching, as he has allowed only 5 walks all season and currently holds a 5-0 record. Next up for the Wolves are a doubleheader versus Saint Martin's on Wednesday, April 8, and three games on the road versus Lewis and Clark this coming weekend.