University of Northern Colorado Athletics
Friday, May 13
Seattle, Wash.
6:00 pm
University of Northern Colorado
at
Seattle
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Photo by: Rob Trubia
@NCBearsBaseball Heads to WAC Leader Seattle for the Weekend
5/11/2016 3:25:00 PM | Baseball
UNC baseball heads to the Pacific Northwest for three games at Seattle
GREELEY, Colo. – The UNC baseball team will look to continue its hot streak when they hit the road this weekend for a game three-game series at WAC leading Seattle. Northern Colorado take a seven-game WAC win streak into Seattle.
Series Notes: Northern Colorado | WAC
Leading Off
• Northern Colorado saw its seven game win streak snapped on Tuesday when the Bears fell to Air Force 9-5.
• Dean Lawson earned his first ever WAC Hitter of the Week award on Monday. He earned the honor by going 9-for-13 over the weekend for a .692 batting average along with slugging .846. Lawson was a factor in each of the team's wins, stealing two bases Friday, recording five hits and scoring the game-winning run Saturday, and driving in four runs on Sunday.
• Northern Colorado overcame a 9-0 deficit on Saturday, to earn a 10-9 walk-off win. The Bears comeback was led by the five hits by Dean Lawson and capped off by Cole Maltese's double to score Lawson in the bottom of the ninth. It was the first time the team had overcome a five plus run deficit since 2013.
• It was not just Lawson who hit well for the team over the weekend, but the whole line-up. As a team UNC hit .346 as a team with a .467 slugging percentage and scored 27 runs.
• Brett Minnick was another Bear who hit well against GCU. He hit two home runs on Friday and drove in seven runs over the whole weekend.
• Pitching was also a key for Northern Colorado during the sweep. Nick Tanner and Allen Cook both struck out eight Lopes each in their outings. Reliever Jacob Howard didn't have the strike out numbers like his teammates, but he earned his first career win on Saturday going five strong innings allowing just one Grand Canyon hit.
Scouting Seattle
Seattle starts the weekend with a one game lead on New Mexico State for the lead in the WAC. The Redhawks are 29-18 overall and 16-5 in WAC games.
SU has earned its conference lead by being the top team in both hitting and pitching. In the batter's box, is hitting for a .296 average, and .399 on-base percentage.
Individually, Sheldon Stober and Sean Sutton lead the team in batting average at .365 and .343. Brock Carpenter is the team's run producer with 41 RBIs entering the weekend.
Seattle's hurlers have compiled an ERA of 3.51 for the year. Starter Nick Meservey leads the WAC with a 2.03 ERA helping him to a 5-2 record. Meservey along with fellow starters Tarik Skubal and Ted Hammond have combined for 174 strike outs this season.
The Redhawks made it to the championship game of last year's WAC tournament, falling to CSU Bakersfield in the finale. This season SU was picked to finish third in the coaches preseason poll.
Series History vs Seattle
In the short history between Northern Colorado and Seattle, UNC has only won one game. That win came in the first game of the series during March of 2012. Since then SU has won eight straight games, including sweeping the Bears in Greeley last season.
Lean Dean Hitting Machine
Dean Lawson is hitting like a man on fire right now. Over the past four games he has a .765 batting average, scoring seven times and driving in six runs as well. His performance against Grand Canyon over last weekend earned him the WAC Hitter of the Week honor.
Lawson leads the team and the WAC with a .389 average. He is .009 of the second place hitter in Dustin Fraily of CSU Bakersfield. That batting average also puts Lawson at 43rd in the nation.
Tanner on a Terror
Nick Tanner has been terrorizing opposing pitchers since WAC play started in the middle of March. In WAC play he is hitting an outstanding slash line of .370/.479/.432. For the season he is leading the team with a .317 average.
He is not just making an impact in the batter's box, but every Sunday he is also been a constant starter for the team. On the year he is 4-1 with a 2.89 ERA, Tanner has walked just 13 players this season and struck out 33. He has earned a win in each of his past three starts he has earned a win posting a 1.35 ERA. In those three starts he has struck out 19 batters and walked only three.
Getting Offensive
Northern Colorado's offense has been firing on all cylinders the past two weeks. The team has a slash line of .318/.438/.410 over the time. Three UNC batters are hitting over .400 in Dean Lawson (.467), Ryan Yamane (.462) and Cole Maltese (.409). The Bears are averaging 7.1 runs per game during this time.
Don't Call It A Comeback
UNC was in a 9-0 hole after the top of the fourth inning on last Saturday against Grand Canyon, before scoring 10 straight runs to earn the win. The team scored five runs in final two innings to earn the walk-off win. Dean Lawson had his fifth hit of the day, a double, to score the game-tying run in the bottom of the ninth. He would come home on the next at-bat, when Cole Maltese hit a double to score Lawson and end the game.
Spring Cleaning
UNC has been doing some spring cleaning as of late, by breaking out the brooms. The team has recorded back-to-back weekend sweeps. The first at North Dakota, followed by a home sweep of Grand Canyon.
The Race To Mesa Heats Up
Northern Colorado is just inches away from a return trip to Mesa, Arizona for the WAC Tournament. Following last weekend's sweep of Grand Canyon the Bears' magic number is down to one. UNC has a 5.5 game lead over CSU Bakersfield with six WAC games to go. The next UNC win or CSUB loss will put the team back into the WAC Tournament.
The Bears made their first trip to Mesa last season, and are looking to make a return trip this year. The WAC Tournament will take place over May 25-29 at Hohokam Stadium, the spring training home of the Oakland A's.
Bash Brothers
Northern Colorado has a pair of bash brothers in Cole Maltese and Brett Minnick. Minnick hit a pair of long balls on Friday against Grand Canyon to increase his season total to nine. He is currently sits two behind Daniel Johnson of New Mexico State for the WAC lead. Maltese is four behind Minnick, having taken off during conference play with four.
Moving Runners Over
Northern Colorado has done a good job of playing small ball at times, moving runners over via sacrifice bunts. The team has 35 sac bunts this season, ranking second in the WAC behind Seattle's 40.
Turning Two
UNC has been doing a good job of turning two this season. The Bears have turned 34 double plays already for the year. Those 3 double plays rank 161st overall in the NCAA and fifth in the WAC. Utah Valley leads the conference with 47 turned.
Yamane The Man
Ryan Yamane set the UNC record for walks earlier this season, and currently sits at 144. The program record before Yamane was Jeff Cheek at 121, Cheek played from 1972-75.
So far this year Yamane has earned a free pass 34 times. Those 34 base on balls ranks him second in the WAC and 75th in the NCAA.
Every day is Sunday
UNC may want to name every day of the week Sunday since that is when the Bears have won most of their games this year. The team is 8-1 on Sunday and 7-25 on any other day of the week.
Swiping Bags
The Bears have been on the run this year, swiping 44 bags so far this season, to rank 154th nationally and sixth in the WAC. Dean Lawson leads the team with nine stolen bases.
Following the Bears
Want to stay up to date with all things UNC Bears Baseball? There are a few ways to. During all games this year there will be live updates on the team's Twitter account @NCBearsBaseball.
For home games there will also be a live audio broadcast of the games as well as live stats on UNCBears.com. Finally after all of the team's home games make sure to get on Facebook and look for the update on the live look at the postgame press conference.
Bear in the Big Leagues
For the first time since 2011, Northern Colorado had a player drafted in the MLB draft last June. Senior Jensen Park was selected by the Colorado Rockies in the 32nd round. Before Park was drafted last year, Jarod Berggren was the last UNC player drafted back in 2011.
Making the Grades
Northern Colorado baseball had seven players earn their spot on the WAC All-Academic team for 2015. Those players were Allen Cook, Caleb Kirkman, Cole Maltese, Dan Reese, Reyn Sugai, Zach Heath and Brett Minnick.
Home Grown
Head coach Carl Iwasaki and his staff have done a good job of keeping the home grown talent in the state. 12 of UNC's 32 hail from the Centennial State.
Hawaii Five-0
The Bears have a little Hawaii flair to them with three players plus head coach Carl Iwasaki and assistant Kaiona Correa all coming to Colorado from the islands.
Exceeding Expectations
For the second straight year, UNC is going to have to exceed the expectations of the WAC coaches to make another trip to Mesa, Arizona for the conference tournament. The WAC coaches pegged the Bears to finish eighth in the conference. Last year the team was picked to finish last in the preseason, but exceed those expectations finishing 7th to make it to Mesa.
New Faces
Northern Colorado not only welcomes 11 new players to this year's ball club, but also has some new faces on the coaching staff. Kai Correa moves up to a full-time assistant after being a volunteer last season, while Coach Iwa also brought on Jordan Stouffer and Dan Siegfried as a volunteer assistant and director of baseball operations.
Class of 2017
While the 2016 season is just about to kick-off, UNC has already secured eight new players for its 2017 team. During the early signing period this year the Bears have brought in three infielders, a catchers, two utility players and a pair of right handed pitchers.
On Deck
UNC will stay in Seattle for an extra day to take on Top 30 ranked Washington on Monday night.
In the Hole
The Bears will close out its regular season at home next week. Northern Colorado will host New Mexico State on May 19-21. Senior Day will take place on Saturday, May 21st.
Around the Den
Track and field is competing in the Big Sky Conference Championships this weekend. The championships are taking place at Nottingham field this year.
| Series Information |
| Friday, May13 at 6:00 pm | RHP Alex Werbach (1-3, 6.46 ERA) vs RHP Ted Hammond (7-2, 4.50 ERA) | Video | Live Stats |
| Saturday, May 14 at 6:00 pm | TBD vs LHP Nick Meservey (5-2, 2.03 ERA) | Video | Live Stats |
| Sunday, May 15 at 1:00 pm | LHP Nick Tanner (4-1, 2.89 ERA) vs RHP Jansen Junk (4-4, 3.90 ERA) | Video | Live Stats |
Series Notes: Northern Colorado | WAC
Leading Off
• Northern Colorado saw its seven game win streak snapped on Tuesday when the Bears fell to Air Force 9-5.
• Dean Lawson earned his first ever WAC Hitter of the Week award on Monday. He earned the honor by going 9-for-13 over the weekend for a .692 batting average along with slugging .846. Lawson was a factor in each of the team's wins, stealing two bases Friday, recording five hits and scoring the game-winning run Saturday, and driving in four runs on Sunday.
• Northern Colorado overcame a 9-0 deficit on Saturday, to earn a 10-9 walk-off win. The Bears comeback was led by the five hits by Dean Lawson and capped off by Cole Maltese's double to score Lawson in the bottom of the ninth. It was the first time the team had overcome a five plus run deficit since 2013.
• It was not just Lawson who hit well for the team over the weekend, but the whole line-up. As a team UNC hit .346 as a team with a .467 slugging percentage and scored 27 runs.
• Brett Minnick was another Bear who hit well against GCU. He hit two home runs on Friday and drove in seven runs over the whole weekend.
• Pitching was also a key for Northern Colorado during the sweep. Nick Tanner and Allen Cook both struck out eight Lopes each in their outings. Reliever Jacob Howard didn't have the strike out numbers like his teammates, but he earned his first career win on Saturday going five strong innings allowing just one Grand Canyon hit.
Scouting Seattle
Seattle starts the weekend with a one game lead on New Mexico State for the lead in the WAC. The Redhawks are 29-18 overall and 16-5 in WAC games.
SU has earned its conference lead by being the top team in both hitting and pitching. In the batter's box, is hitting for a .296 average, and .399 on-base percentage.
Individually, Sheldon Stober and Sean Sutton lead the team in batting average at .365 and .343. Brock Carpenter is the team's run producer with 41 RBIs entering the weekend.
Seattle's hurlers have compiled an ERA of 3.51 for the year. Starter Nick Meservey leads the WAC with a 2.03 ERA helping him to a 5-2 record. Meservey along with fellow starters Tarik Skubal and Ted Hammond have combined for 174 strike outs this season.
The Redhawks made it to the championship game of last year's WAC tournament, falling to CSU Bakersfield in the finale. This season SU was picked to finish third in the coaches preseason poll.
Series History vs Seattle
In the short history between Northern Colorado and Seattle, UNC has only won one game. That win came in the first game of the series during March of 2012. Since then SU has won eight straight games, including sweeping the Bears in Greeley last season.
Lean Dean Hitting Machine
Dean Lawson is hitting like a man on fire right now. Over the past four games he has a .765 batting average, scoring seven times and driving in six runs as well. His performance against Grand Canyon over last weekend earned him the WAC Hitter of the Week honor.
Lawson leads the team and the WAC with a .389 average. He is .009 of the second place hitter in Dustin Fraily of CSU Bakersfield. That batting average also puts Lawson at 43rd in the nation.
Tanner on a Terror
Nick Tanner has been terrorizing opposing pitchers since WAC play started in the middle of March. In WAC play he is hitting an outstanding slash line of .370/.479/.432. For the season he is leading the team with a .317 average.
He is not just making an impact in the batter's box, but every Sunday he is also been a constant starter for the team. On the year he is 4-1 with a 2.89 ERA, Tanner has walked just 13 players this season and struck out 33. He has earned a win in each of his past three starts he has earned a win posting a 1.35 ERA. In those three starts he has struck out 19 batters and walked only three.
Getting Offensive
Northern Colorado's offense has been firing on all cylinders the past two weeks. The team has a slash line of .318/.438/.410 over the time. Three UNC batters are hitting over .400 in Dean Lawson (.467), Ryan Yamane (.462) and Cole Maltese (.409). The Bears are averaging 7.1 runs per game during this time.
Don't Call It A Comeback
UNC was in a 9-0 hole after the top of the fourth inning on last Saturday against Grand Canyon, before scoring 10 straight runs to earn the win. The team scored five runs in final two innings to earn the walk-off win. Dean Lawson had his fifth hit of the day, a double, to score the game-tying run in the bottom of the ninth. He would come home on the next at-bat, when Cole Maltese hit a double to score Lawson and end the game.
Spring Cleaning
UNC has been doing some spring cleaning as of late, by breaking out the brooms. The team has recorded back-to-back weekend sweeps. The first at North Dakota, followed by a home sweep of Grand Canyon.
The Race To Mesa Heats Up
Northern Colorado is just inches away from a return trip to Mesa, Arizona for the WAC Tournament. Following last weekend's sweep of Grand Canyon the Bears' magic number is down to one. UNC has a 5.5 game lead over CSU Bakersfield with six WAC games to go. The next UNC win or CSUB loss will put the team back into the WAC Tournament.
The Bears made their first trip to Mesa last season, and are looking to make a return trip this year. The WAC Tournament will take place over May 25-29 at Hohokam Stadium, the spring training home of the Oakland A's.
Bash Brothers
Northern Colorado has a pair of bash brothers in Cole Maltese and Brett Minnick. Minnick hit a pair of long balls on Friday against Grand Canyon to increase his season total to nine. He is currently sits two behind Daniel Johnson of New Mexico State for the WAC lead. Maltese is four behind Minnick, having taken off during conference play with four.
Moving Runners Over
Northern Colorado has done a good job of playing small ball at times, moving runners over via sacrifice bunts. The team has 35 sac bunts this season, ranking second in the WAC behind Seattle's 40.
Turning Two
UNC has been doing a good job of turning two this season. The Bears have turned 34 double plays already for the year. Those 3 double plays rank 161st overall in the NCAA and fifth in the WAC. Utah Valley leads the conference with 47 turned.
Yamane The Man
Ryan Yamane set the UNC record for walks earlier this season, and currently sits at 144. The program record before Yamane was Jeff Cheek at 121, Cheek played from 1972-75.
So far this year Yamane has earned a free pass 34 times. Those 34 base on balls ranks him second in the WAC and 75th in the NCAA.
Every day is Sunday
UNC may want to name every day of the week Sunday since that is when the Bears have won most of their games this year. The team is 8-1 on Sunday and 7-25 on any other day of the week.
Swiping Bags
The Bears have been on the run this year, swiping 44 bags so far this season, to rank 154th nationally and sixth in the WAC. Dean Lawson leads the team with nine stolen bases.
Following the Bears
Want to stay up to date with all things UNC Bears Baseball? There are a few ways to. During all games this year there will be live updates on the team's Twitter account @NCBearsBaseball.
For home games there will also be a live audio broadcast of the games as well as live stats on UNCBears.com. Finally after all of the team's home games make sure to get on Facebook and look for the update on the live look at the postgame press conference.
Bear in the Big Leagues
For the first time since 2011, Northern Colorado had a player drafted in the MLB draft last June. Senior Jensen Park was selected by the Colorado Rockies in the 32nd round. Before Park was drafted last year, Jarod Berggren was the last UNC player drafted back in 2011.
Making the Grades
Northern Colorado baseball had seven players earn their spot on the WAC All-Academic team for 2015. Those players were Allen Cook, Caleb Kirkman, Cole Maltese, Dan Reese, Reyn Sugai, Zach Heath and Brett Minnick.
Home Grown
Head coach Carl Iwasaki and his staff have done a good job of keeping the home grown talent in the state. 12 of UNC's 32 hail from the Centennial State.
Hawaii Five-0
The Bears have a little Hawaii flair to them with three players plus head coach Carl Iwasaki and assistant Kaiona Correa all coming to Colorado from the islands.
Exceeding Expectations
For the second straight year, UNC is going to have to exceed the expectations of the WAC coaches to make another trip to Mesa, Arizona for the conference tournament. The WAC coaches pegged the Bears to finish eighth in the conference. Last year the team was picked to finish last in the preseason, but exceed those expectations finishing 7th to make it to Mesa.
New Faces
Northern Colorado not only welcomes 11 new players to this year's ball club, but also has some new faces on the coaching staff. Kai Correa moves up to a full-time assistant after being a volunteer last season, while Coach Iwa also brought on Jordan Stouffer and Dan Siegfried as a volunteer assistant and director of baseball operations.
Class of 2017
While the 2016 season is just about to kick-off, UNC has already secured eight new players for its 2017 team. During the early signing period this year the Bears have brought in three infielders, a catchers, two utility players and a pair of right handed pitchers.
On Deck
UNC will stay in Seattle for an extra day to take on Top 30 ranked Washington on Monday night.
In the Hole
The Bears will close out its regular season at home next week. Northern Colorado will host New Mexico State on May 19-21. Senior Day will take place on Saturday, May 21st.
Around the Den
Track and field is competing in the Big Sky Conference Championships this weekend. The championships are taking place at Nottingham field this year.
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