By: Evan O'Kelly, Associate Commissioner for Communications

ELLENSBURG, Wash. – After each going 1-1 on the opening day of the 2025 Great Northwest Athletic Conference Baseball Championships on Thursday at the Central Washington baseball team, all three qualifying teams advanced to Friday’s championship round of play.
 
No. 3 seed Central Washington will take on No. 2 seed Montana State Billings at noon on Friday, with the winner advancing to a 3 p.m. game against No. 1 seed Northwest Nazarene. The victor of that final game will hoist the 2025 GNAC Championships trophy.
 
Game 1 – Montana State Billings 5, Central Washington 4 | Box Score
 
First-team all-GNAC second baseman Bodee Wright hit a go-ahead, three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning, helping the Yellowjackets overcome a 3-2 deficit and emerge with a triumph. Wright went 3-for-4 with two runs and three RBIs to lead the ‘Jacket offense in a game where they tallied 10 hits. Fellow first-team pick Kaden Kirshenbaum was 3-for-4 with a pair of RBIs.
 
Hayden Mullins, a first-team all-GNAC relief pitcher, earned the win by limiting the Wildcats to one run on two hits across the final three frames of the game. Senior starter Jackson Betancourt allowed three runs – two earned – on eight hits with four strikeouts and no walks in six strong innings of work.
 
For the Wildcats, leftfielder Ben Leid went 3-for-4 with a run scored but was his team’s only player with multiple hits. CWU stranded eight baserunners in the narrow defeat.
 
CWU got on the board right away, as Marcus Manzardo scored on a wild pitch in the top of the first inning. The lead was short-lived however, as a Kirshenbaum two-run knock in the bottom of the inning put the Yellowjackets ahead 2-1 early on.
 
GNAC Player of the Year Brandham Ponce plated a run with a sacrifice fly in the third, and an RBI-single off the bat of Logan Blank nudged the Wildcats back ahead 3-2 in the fourth. A Max Bledy double in the eighth pulled the tournament hosts within a run and put the tying run in scoring position, but Mullins dug deep and relied on Wright and Zack Blaszak up the middle to turn an inning-ending double play.
 
CWU starter Daniel Charron allowed five runs on nine hits with three strikeouts and three walks in 6 2/3 innings of work.


 
Game 2 – Central Washington 6, Northwest Nazarene 3 | Box Score
 
The Wildcats earned a spot in Saturday’s championship with a gutsy victory over the regular-season champion Nighthawks, after losing all eight regular-season games against NNU this season.
 
Bledy punched a two-run single into right field and Brady Hinkle added an RBI-single to left field in a three-run seventh inning for the Wildcats that proved to be the difference in the game. Hinkle finished 3-for-5 while Ponce and Andrew Sharp had two hits apiece for the Wildcats.
 
NNU jumped out to an early lead with a first-inning sacrifice fly by Adrian Arechiga and a passed ball to make the score 2-0. The Wildcats answered immediately however, scoring three runs in the top of the second to take the lead. Travis Helm had an RBI ground out before Justin Birch cleared the fence in left-center for his fifth home run of the season.
 
A sacrifice fly off the bat of NNU’s Bryan Rojas in the fifth inning evened the score at 3-3, but it proved to be the Nighthawks’ final run of the ballgame. First-team all-GNAC starter Jonathan Garza II lasted eight innings, allowing three runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts and one walk. Berg earned the save with a scoreless ninth inning, striking out three to shut the door.
 
NNU starter Landen Parker took the loss, allowing four runs on seven hits with four strikeouts and a walk across six innings pitched. Nin Burns II, Karpstein and Cris Enriquez each had a pair of the Nighthawks’ eight hits in the game.
 
Game 3 – Northwest Nazarene 15, Montana State Billings 0 | Box Score
 
Casey Wayne hit two home runs and the Nighthawks trounced the Yellowjackets to keep their tournament going and advance to the championship title game. The Nighthawks needed just 11 hits to score their 15 runs, as they drew eight walks, stole bases, had a pair of triples and three long balls. The Yellowjackets meanwhile mustered just two hits off GNAC Newcomer of the Year Ernesto Lugo-Canchola.
 
A six-run bottom of the third signaled the opening of the floodgates, as the Nighthawks jumped ahead and never looked back. After building the lead to 11-0 by the end of the seventh, NNU tacked on four more runs in the eighth to complete its statement victory. Enriquez homered, tripled and had five RBIs while Wayne finished 3-for-3 with four runs scored in the must-win game for NNU.
 
Lugo-Canchola went the distance on the hill, striking out eight and issuing just two walks to go along with the two hits allowed. The left-hander threw an even 100 pitches to complete the shutout.
 
The Yellowjackets used four different pitchers, with starter Sam Coxen allowing 10 runs – eight earned – on five hits with five strikeouts and five walks in five innings pitched.