BILLINGS, Mont. – With four more road games on tap this weekend, the Montana State University Billings baseball team returns to the diamond for a Great Northwest Athletic Conference series against Northwest Nazarene on Friday and Saturday in Nampa, Idaho.
 
The teams will meet at Vail Baseball Field on the NNU campus and are scheduled to play a pair of 9-inning/ 7-inning doubleheaders. Friday's games will start at 3 p.m. and Saturday's are set for 1 p.m. Live statistics will be available for all four games via www.msubsports.com.
 
The Yellowjackets (7-16, 2-5 GNAC) will then return to Billings to open a 17-game homestand at Dehler Park with four games against Saint Martin's on March 27-28.
 
Coming off of three losses at Western Oregon, the 'Jackets were left in suspense as the final game of the series was delayed with MSUB leading 1-0 and having the bases loaded in the top of the first inning. Action will resume when the Wolves visit the 'Jackets in April at Dehler Park.
 
Entering the series against the Wolves having won two-straight games, WOU put together a late rally in the opener to tie the score at 6-6 and won the game 7-6 in extra innings. MSUB struggled to find its footing after the tough loss in Game 1, falling 8-1 in Game 2 and 14-5 in Game 3 before the finale was suspended due to rain.
 
"We definitely need to come back strong and play good baseball coming off a subpar performance at WOU," said MSUB head coach Rob Bishop. "My goal is always to win the series and that doesn't change this week."
 
MSUB continues to lead the GNAC in many offensive categories, including batting average (.290), on-base percentage (.376), runs (153), hits (245), RBIs (136) and walks (102). On the mound MSUB holds a 7.22 ERA and has struck out 155 batters against 121 walks as a staff in 195 2/3 innings.
 
MORRIS STAYS STEADY: Shortstop Corey Morris kept his team-leading batting average at .377 by hitting 3-for-10 against the Wolves with a double and a walk in three games. He also made 17 plays at shortstop without committing an error.
 
MILLER MOVING UP: Senior second baseman Brody Miller had three hits, drove in three runs and scored twice in last week's series. He is now in the top-10 in GNAC career history in several key categories including third in assists (412), fourth in RBIs (127) and walks (91), sixth in hits (218) and walks per game (0.56), seventh in at bats (627) and doubles (39), eighth in total bases (307) and hits per game (1.34), and ninth in games started (163).
 
GNAC 200 Hit Club

Rk.	Hits	Name	School	Years Played
1	295	Jamie Nilsen	Central Washington	2005-08
2	276	Joey Price	Western Oregon	1999-02
3	241	Sean McDonald	Northwest Nazarene	2009-12
4	235	Greg McCarthy	Western Oregon	2002-05
5	222	Shane Schoeneberg	Saint Martin's	2005, 2007-09
6	218	Bryce Gardinier	Western Oregon	2000-03
	218	Brody Miller	MSU Billings	2012-15
8	209	Travis Chetock	Western Oregon	2000-03
9	204	Matt Lowe	Northwest Nazarene	2000-03

 
MULLER STAYS IN GROOVE: On the pitching side, senior left-hander Brady Muller tossed his fourth-straight effective start, allowing four runs on seven hits with five strikeouts and three walks in 7 1/3 strong innings against the Wolves. Over his last four starts Muller has accumulated 31 strikeouts while walking 10 and holding an ERA of 2.76.
 
Muller is now in the top-10 in GNAC career history in numerous pitching categories including fifth in games started (36) and strikeouts (201), seventh in innings pitched (228 1/3), and ninth in wins (16).
 
"Brady has been solid on the mound and we look for him to continue that this weekend," Bishop said. "Game 1 is important to the momentum of a series and it sets the stage for how each team will use its bullpen for the remainder of the series. We definitely look to Brady to be a leader on our staff."
 
GNAC All-Time Strikeout Leaders

Rk.	Ks	Name	School	Years Played
1	269	Nick Waechter	Central Washington	2004-06
2	246	Roger Evenson	Northwest Nazarene	2003-05
3	231	Steven Schutte	Northwest Nazarene	2002-04
4	223	Mike Ward	Western Oregon	2007-08, 2010-11
5	201	Brady Muller	MSU Billings	2012-15
6	185	Mike Eisenhauer	Western Oregon	2007-09
7	179	Kirk Lind	Western Oregon	2009-12
8	175	Neil Elder	Northwest Nazarene	2000-03
9	168	Blake Keitzman	Western Oregon	2009-10

OTHER NOTES: Starter Jake Campeau has shown excellent command over his last two starts, striking out eight and not allowing a single walk…the senior right-hander has walked just five batters in 21 1/3 innings on the season and has an ERA of 4.05 over his last two starts…Luke Reinschmidt (.319), Trevor Nix (.313), and Kyle Durbin (.300) are the other Yellowjackets besides Miller and Morris to hold batting averages above .300…Colter Sternhagen remains as the GNAC leader in doubles with 11 on the season in 22 games…Reinschmidt is the conference's leader in RBIs with 25 in 23 games…after drawing six walks in the series last week, junior Kevin Toon ranks second in the GNAC in that category with 19…reliever Lee Busto made two more appearances last week, pushing his GNAC-leading total to 15 on the season.
 
Friday, March 20 – 3 p.m. – Vail Baseball Field – DOUBLEHEADER
Saturday, March 21 – 1 p.m. – Vail Baseball Field – DOUBLEHEADER
Northwest Nazarene University Crusaders
2015 Record: 14-11, 4-4 GNAC
Head Coach: Rocke Musgraves, 2nd Season
2014 GNAC Finish: 4th (18-31, 13-19 GNAC)
 
Coming off of a 3-1 series loss to Central Washington, the Crusaders enter this weekend's series with an even 4-4 record in conference play.
 
NNU is being led offensively by Josh Hatfield, whose .389 batting average ranks third in the conference. He also leads the league in runs scored with 25, and is tied for second in hits with 35.
 
Andrew Helmstadter and Kyle Thomson are each also batting north of .350, at .385 and .375, respectively. Helmstadter leads the GNAC in triples with five and has 16 total extra-base hits and a slugging percentage of .637. Thomson holds an on-base percentage of .453 to go along with his lofty batting average, and he has stolen seven bases in eight attempts on the season.
 
On the mound, starters Jake Reppert and Colben McGuire have been terrific, with ERAs of 2.01 and 3.43, respectively. McGuire leads the GNAC with 47 strikeouts, and has walked just seven batters in his 44 2/3 innings pitched this season. In the bullpen, Andrew Groves is leading the squad with four saves on the season, and has 21 strikeouts against five walks in 17 1/3 innings pitched.
 
Overall the 'Saders average 6.12 runs per game while allowing 4.96. NNU is batting .289, slugging .419 and reaching base at a clip of .370 as a team.
 
The Series: NNU holds an all-time 34-30 advantage over MSUB, and is 16-12 at home against the Yellowjackets.
 
Last Time Out: MSUB won five of the eight games between the teams a season ago, including the last two of the season series 6-5 and 3-2 in Billings on back-to-back walk-off hits by Brad Birch.
 
"Last week, our defense, pitching, and hitting were all well below where we have performed all year," Bishop said. "I fully expect our guys to respond with a great effort this coming weekend and throughout the rest of the GNAC schedule. NNU has a great club this year and it will be a good challenge for us. I'm looking forward to the series."