Western Nevada College, the SWAC regular-season champion, closes out its outstanding regular season with a four-game series against second-place Salt Lake Community College starting today.
The teams will play doubleheaders today and Saturday starting at noon. WNC enters the weekend with a 33-3 record, while the Bruins are 28-8. SLCC is the only team to beat WNC in conference this year, taking three of four from the Wildcats in the first series between the teams.
"It should be a good series," said D.J. Whittemore, WNC head coach. "You have nine of the top 10 pitchers in the league. Salt Lake has the top four and we have five of the next six. There are also six of the top 10 hitters."
The series was supposed to decide the championship, but CSI split its doubleheader with Salt Lake last weekend, knocking the Bruins out of a shot for first place.
Salt Lake has a team ERA of 2.79, led by Adam Gunn (7-2, 2.01), Jordan Hager (5-1, 1.72), Tyson Memmott (6-1, 3.19), A.J. Carman (4-1, 3.14), Ruddy Acosta (5-0, 1.05) and Tanner Banks (5-0, 1.25).
WNC counters with Anthony Consiglio (6-1, 2.44), Chris Garrison (7-3, 2.59), Tim Peterson (7-0, 2.50), Kody Gorden (5-1, 3.38) and Andrew Woeck (7-2, 4.81).
The Bruins have nine hitters batting .300 or better - Braden Anderson (.409), Dominique Taylor (.402), Sean Moysh (.348), Kyle Bilbrey (.333), Cory Raymond (.333), Eddy Alvarez (.324), Mitch Manning (.315), Tyson Popoff (.313) and Kennedy Kinkade (.312).
The Wildcats have some heavy hitters of their own - Chris Woolley (.366, 33 RBIs), Connor Eppard (.360, 35 RBIs), Sean Potkay (.325, 33 RBIs) and Beau Day (.312, 45 RBIs).
Between games of Saturday's doubleheader, WNC will honors its sophomore class. Six of those sophomores - Gorden, Peterson, Patrick McMeel, Sean Dwyer, Brooks Klein and Jon Sigado have a chance to have the best home record and best conference winning percentage depending on what happens this weekend.