BILLINGS, Mont. - The Montana State University Billings Baseball team continues their extensive home stand as they welcome Great Northwest Athletic Conference foe Saint Martin's University to Billings for a four game series.    
 
After scoring 31 runs in 14 innings against nonconference opponent Dickinson State on Tuesday April 8th, MSUB earned one victory in four GNAC games against first-place Western Oregon University.
 
The Yellowjackets lost game one 8-3 and dropped a narrow 6-4 loss in Game 2 put the 'Jackets in a 0-2 hole, but MSUB responded with a strong 9-4 win in Game 3 against the Wolves. 
 
Bret Bitow, Brody Miller, Blake Loran and Kevin Toon all had two RIBS in the win, and starter Drew Christina turned in six solid innings on the mound. Reliever Jake Mills was instrumental as well, as he contributed two perfect innings with two strikeouts to thwart any chance of a WOU comeback.
 
MSUB dug themselves an early hole, falling behind 0-7 in the first inning of game four.  Although the Yellowjackets did produce eight runs, the early deficit proved too much to overcome and they lost the series finale 11-8.    

Luke Reinschmidt had a terrific weekend, batting 11-for-20 with two doubles, two triples, a home run, nine RBI and eight runs scored in the six combined games. Miller continued his hot hitting, batting 10-for-25 with five doubles and eight runs scored on the week.
 
The Yellowjackets (10-22, 7-11 GNAC) are currently sitting in fourth place in the conference standings and face a must-win series this week in order to maintain contention for one of the three GNAC postseason berths. Saint Martin's (10-25, 7-11) is currently in fifth place and will also need to win to stay in contention.   
 
Miller leads the GNAC in hitting with a .412 batting average.  He also leads the league in on base percentage (.510) and hits (49). Miller is tied for the team led in RBI's with 23 and has three home runs along with nine doubles.   
 
Toon is second in the GNAC in batting average with a .376.  He carries an on base percentage of .444, which is third in the GNAC, and has 32 hits.  Toon has 18 RBIs thus far and seven doubles.
 
Reinschmidt is third on the team and seventh in the GNAC with a batting average of .345.  He has 40 hits on the year, nine doubles and GNAC leading five triples to go with one homerun.  Reinschmidt is also leading the GNAC in three runs games of which he has six total. 
 
Mills leads the Yellowjacket bullpen with an ERA of .208 which is fourth in the league among relievers.  In 30.1 innings of work, Mills has allowed just 31 hits and seven hits while striking out 23 batters.  Starter Matt Eames is 10th in the GNAC amongst starters with an ERA of 5.48.  Eamas has pitched 42.2 innings, allowing 46 hits and 29 runs while striking out 20 batters.

"This weekend will be a crossroads for us in the GNAC," head coach Rob Bishop said.  "Saint Martins is playing for the same thing so it should be a great series.  Traditionally our series with Saint Martins have been hard fought and I definitely expect this one to be competitive to the last out.  It should be a fun series.  I am expecting great things from our pitching staff this weekend.  We have shown signs of hitting our stride as a staff and we definitely need them to come up big against a very good hitting team this weekend."
 
MSUB will face off against SMU on Friday April 18th and Saturday April 19th.  Both days will feature double header action and on both days first pitch is scheduled to be thrown at 1:00PM.  Live stats and video will be available at MSUBSPORTS.Com