BILLINGS, Mont. -- The 2011 softball season at Montana State University Billings inevitably rides on the outcome of Thursday's key Great Northwest Athletic Conference doubleheader against conference leader Central Washington.

 

The start time for the games has been moved from 1 p.m. to 11 a.m. due to the forecasted weather for the Billings area tomorrow afternoon.

 

With a pair of wins, MSUB (24-20, 19-13 GNAC) could strengthen their case to appear in their third NCAA Tournament and would also keep hope alive to win the conference with a lot of help from other teams against CWU and Western Washington.

 

It's a long shot, but MSUB currently sits four games behind the Wildcats in the standings and are just two behind the Vikings. While MSUB wraps up their schedule this weekend with games against CWU and Northwest Nazarene, the Wildcats will still have at least nine games left to play after Thursday and the Vikings have eight games, including two with CWU at the end of the season.

 

With a chance of rain in the forecast Thursday afternoon, there could be thunder at Cenex Stadium, but not from the sky. Both teams enter the doubleheader nationally ranked in home run categories. The Wildcats are third in home runs per game (1.39), while MSUB ranks sixth (1.32), and both squads have hit over 50 homers this season.

 

Individually both teams bring in the top hitters in the conference as MSUB's Kaycee Hoffman and Central's Kelsey Haupert are tied for the GNAC home run lead at 13 apiece. Between the top three home run hitters on each squad, there have been 70 home runs hit combined.

 

Senior Kelly Parsons enters the week leading the Yellowjackets with a .394 batting average, while a surging Bobbie Lee is hitting .392. Parsons is slugging .828 with 12 homers and 32 RBI on the season. Lee has had the hot bat as of late, coming up with 38 hits this season and nine RBI.

 

Hoffman and Harasymczuk have been supplying a lot of power this season as well, but recently it has been junior Nicole Colpron swinging the lumber as she has brought her home run total to five after hitting one in the Western Oregon series.

The Yellowjackets are looking to maintain their momentum as they have won five in-a-row and are winners of nine of their last 11. MSUB has now gone 18-9 since interim head coach Lisa Allen took over March, 19.

 

On the other side of the diamond, Central Washington comes in as one of the hottest teams in the nation, winning 15 straight games, including 12 league games.

 

The Wildcats are led Samantha Petrich who is hitting .500 on the year and has a tremendous slugging percentage of .935 with 10 home runs and 18 extra base hits. Haupert has supplied the big bat with her 13 home runs and is hitting .413 with a team-high 35 RBI.