Box Score 1 | Box Score 2


MONMOUTH Ore. – The Montana State University Billings Baseball team dropped their two opening Great Northwest Athletic Conference games to Western Oregon University 1- and 4-5 on Friday, Mar. 7th.

GAME 1: MSUB 1 WOU 9  

The Wolves received a complete game from starting pitcher Spenser Watkins.  He went 9.0 innings allowing just seven hits and one run while striking out 12 Yellowjackets. 

Matt Eames (0-2) started on the mound for MSUB and continued his stellar pitching.  He faced 24 batters only allowing four hits and two runs while striking out three wolves in 6.0 innings of work.

WOU scored runs in the first and second innings then held the 2-0 advantage for most of the game until the seventh inning when they erupted for three runs then added another four in the eight to put the game away.   

MSU-Billings (1-13, 0-2 GNAC) was paced by the GNAC's leading hitter Brody Miller (.488) had two hits on three at bats.  Bret Bitow also went 2-3 at the plate while Brad Birch, Drew Fosnes and Luke Reinschmidt each had one hit in the game.

MSUB's lone run came in the ninth inning when Myles Berkram scored from third base on a wild pitch from Watkins.


GAME 2: MSUB 4 WOU 5

They Yellowjackets got things going scoring a run in the first inning of a seven inning game.  Once in GNAC play, all teams play two games per day in a four game series with the first being nine innings and the second game only going seven.  

The leadoff hitter, Casey Merritt, opened the game with a double to right center field.  Miller was then walked followed by Fosnes who was out at first but allowed Merritt and Miller to each advance one base.  Birch was up next and he popped up to deep right field which allowed Merritt to score from third and give Birch the sacrifice RBI. 

The Wolves answered back scoring two runs in the second inning and add on another in the fourth inning for the 3-1 advantage.

MSUB then tacked on one more run in the fifth inning when Fosnes singled to right field which was enough to push Merritt across home plate from second base and cut the WOU lead to 3-2.  MSUB ended the inning with three hits and one run, but left three on base.

WOU added two more runs in the sixth inning to stretch their advantage to 5-2 heading into the seventh. 

The Yellowjackets would make thing interesting in the final inning.  The first batter, Mille was hit by a pitch.  He was followed by Fosnes who hit a single through the left side. A wild pitch during Birch's at bat allowed Miller to advance to third and Fosnes to second.  Birch then blasted a ball to right field for a single which allowed both Miller and Fosnes to score and bring MSUB within striking distance 4-5 with no outs. 

Now with one out, Steven DeYoung grounded out to third base but allowed Birch to advance to second.  Conner Holbrook then singled to second base to advance birch to third and more importantly, the tying run was now at third with two outs.

The Yellowjackets were unable to get one more hit as the next batter struck out looking to end the game and WOU escaped with a 5-4 win.

Drew Christina received the start for MSUB going 5.0 innings striking out a game high seven batters while allowing three hits and four runs.

MSUB finishes out the opening series today at WOU.  The first game is scheduled to begin at 12:00 PM PT time.  For stats visit WOUWOLVES.COM.