ELLENSBURG, Wash. – A dominant offensive display by
Zack Blaszak and stellar pitching performances helped the Montana State University Billings baseball team sweep their series against Central Washington, extending their winning streak to seven games. The Yellowjackets (22-10, 13-3) triumphed in game three, 11-8 and cruised to a 10-3 win in the series finale at CWU Baseball Field.
A career performance from Blaszak, another quality start from
Sam Coxen, and
Andy Evans sixth save of the season was the perfect recipe to earn the series win on the road with a 11-8 game three victory over the Wildcats. Blaszak posted a career high five hit, five RBI, and two home run game while also tallying three runs and a stolen base to lead the Yellowjacket sluggers. On the bump, Coxen allowed just four runs with four strikeouts in his six innings of work while Malcom Bartholomew followed with 1.1 innings and a pair of strikeouts. GNAC saves leader,
Andy Evans closed it out with a scoreless 1.2 innings with two strikeouts in route to a historic senior season. After today's game, the Meridian, ID native is now just one save away from tying the most single season saves (7) in MSUB history and also sits just one save shy of tying for second all-time in the MSUB record books for career saves.
HEAR FROM COACH WADDOUPS: "I'm proud of how our team responded throughout the day, Central Washington has a good lineup and challenged us several times. Our pitching staff did an outstanding job of minimizing innings and maximizing quality pitches when we needed them. Coxen had a rough first inning but bounced back with five huge scoreless innings, and Evans was electric again to close it out. Blaszak had a huge day for us at the plate. He has fought through some adversity and came up big for us today. We continue to get production throughout the lineup which makes us very difficult to pitch to."
GAME THREE: MSUB 11; CWU 8
Game three of the series and game one of the doubleheader started with fireworks and both squads scored 11 total runs on four home runs with three of them coming from the Yellowjackets. Kirshenbaum got MSUB on the board with his 25
th career homer, bringing Nehler and Blaszak home with him to take the early 3-0 lead. The Wildcats immediately responded with four of their own in the bottom half, but their lead didn't last long as Blaszak hit a two-run bomb down the right field line in the top of the second. After a shutout inning from Coxen, Jeffrey extended MSUB's lead to three in the top of the third inning with another two-run homer to make it a 7-4 ballgame.
The slugfest soon dwindled as both starters were able to settle in and put up three straight scoreless innings. It wasn't until the top of the seventh inning when Blaszak sent his second long ball of the game over the right field wall for his second homer of the game. Following a scoreless bottom half from Bartholomew who entered to relieve Coxen, the Yellowjacket offense exploded with three more runs in the top of the eighth.
Jason Wright crossed the first on an RBI single and Blaszak added his fifth hit and 5
th RBI of the game with another two RBI base hit. The Wildcats were able to put up four runs in the bottom of the eighth but Evans game in to close the door, throwing a scoreless final 1.2 innings with two strikeouts to lead the 'Jackets to an 11-8 victory.
HEAR FROM COACH WADDOUPS: "
Ryan Jeffrey is another one that had a great day at the plate for us and just continues to make plays in center. Fortier is just a flat-out grinder of a baseball player, he can play any position on the field, is a clutch RBI machine, and I'm grateful to have him. To win GNAC road series can be very difficult, so I am just proud of our team and their effort to get the road sweep."
The final game of the series was all MSUB, the Yellowjackets posted a dominant 10-3 victory with 10 hits and zero errors in route to a series sweep. On the offensive side of the ball, four Yellowjacket hitters tallied a muli-hit game while three scored at least two runs. Leading the way was
Ryker Fortier who went 2-4 with a team high of three RBIs while Kirshenbaum tallied a team best of three runs on a pair of walks. Senior lefty
Cy Miller posted his second straight quality start, going four complete with just two runs and four hits to earn his third win of the season. First out of relief was
Bodee Wright who allowed zero runs and just two hits in his two complete innings of work, while
Kevin McClellan closed out the seventh inning.
GAME FOUR: MSUB 10; CWU 3
The Yellowjackets got action going early and often in the series finale, with
Bodee Wright starting the game with a leadoff double and Nehler following suit to make it a 1-0 ballgame. The scoring in the top of the first didn't stop there as Nehler scored on a costly Wildcat error and
Ryker Fortier brought Kirshenbaum home on an RBI single to give MSUB an early 3-0 advantage.
While Miller was cruising, the Yellowjackets continued to tac on runs, scoring two in the top of the third highlighted by Blaszak's third homer of the day, and scoring five in the top of the fourth inning. Nehler brought home Wright, followed by a two RBI single from Fortier, Jeffrey scoring on an error, and Bleggi scoring Fortier on an RBI single to give the 'Jackets a 10-0 advantage.
From there, the Wildcats were able to scrape two across in the bottom half of the fifth and one in the bottom of the seventh, but it was not enough. Wright and McClellan combined for the final three innings and were able to hold off the Central lineup to lead MSUB to a 10-3 game four victory.
STATISTIC LEADERS
H: Zack Blaszak (7);
Ryan Jeffrey (4)
R: Zack Blaszak (5);
Kaden Kirshenbaum (5)
RBI: Zack Blaszak (6);
Ryan Jeffrey (4)
IP: Sam Coxen (6);
Cy Miller (4)
SO: Sam Coxen (4);
Malcolm Bartholomew (2);
Andy Evans (2)
W/S: Sam Coxen (W);
Cy Miller (W);
Andy Evans (S)
THE BUZZ: Zack Blaszak was named Intermountain Health Player of the Game for game one and
Ryker Fortier was named Intermountain Health Player of the Game for game two.
UP NEXT: After hitting the halfway point in GNAC competition, the Montana State University Billings baseball team will head into their final bye weekend before hosting #23 Northwest Nazarene on April 11
th. Tickets for the four game series can be purchased
here, live statistics can be found
here, and the live stream link can be found
here.
