University of Northern Colorado Athletics
Friday, May 6
Greeley, Colo.
3:00 pm
University of Northern Colorado
vs
Grand Canyon
Players Mentioned
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/ BaseballPhoto by: Rob Trubia
@NCBearsBaseball Changes Game Time for Saturday
5/4/2016 12:52:00 PM | Baseball
Northern Colorado baseball hosts Grand Canyon this weekend in WAC play.
GREELEY, Colo. – Once again Mother Nature has forced UNC baseball to make amendments to its schedule. With rain scheduled for most of the late afternoon Saturday, Northern Colorado and Grand Canyon will now play at 11 am. The rest of the start times for the series remain the same.
The Bears and Lopes begin their series today at 3 pm when RHP Corey Nakakura of UNC faces RHP Cameron Brendel of GCU. Northern Colorado comes into Friday's game with a four game win streak.
Series Notes: Northern Colorado | WAC
Gameday Happenings
Throughout the whole weekend, UNC baseball will be raising money for the Vs. Cancer Foundation, along with selling shirts to help raise money. Sunday will also be Vs. Cancer Day, as members of the team and staff will be shaving their heads after the game to show their support for those who have been affected by cancer.
For those who are unable to attend this weekend's series, and want to help the team in fundraising, they can click here to go to the team's fundraising page.
Along with Vs-Cancer weekend, Saturday is also Bark in the Park Day! Bring your furry friends with you to the game as UNC takes on defending WAC regular season champions Grand Canyon. The first 25 fans at the game with their dog will receive a special goody bag from UNC Athletics.
Leading Off
• Northern Colorado extended its win streak to four games last weekend, with a three-game sweep of North Dakota.
• The Bears had some excellent starting pitching on the mound in Grand Forks. The trio of Corey Nakakura, Alex Werbach and Nick Tanner combined to go 20 1/3 innings allowing just four runs on 18 hits while striking out 20 Fighting Hawks.
• Tanner earned WAC Pitcher of the Week honors for his performance on Sunday when he allowed just one run over 7 1/3 innings pitched and struck out eight UND hitters.
• It wasn't just UNC's pitching that carries the team to the sweep, but the Bears offense hit well. As a team they hit .273 against the Fighting Hawks including having seven different players hit above .370.
• The Bears were not just getting singles to boost their batting average, but had seven extra base hits out of the 27 total.
• Northern Colorado returns home after a six game road trip this week to host Grand Canyon. The Lopes come into the game with a 10-8 WAC record, two games ahead of the Bears.
• Brett Minnick broke out of his mid-year slump over the weekend when he went 4-for-13 with three extra base hits, scoring three times and driving in five more runs.
Scouting Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon comes into Greeley in the middle of a 10 games in 13 days stretch after facing San Jose State on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
Last weekend, GCU went 2-1 against Chicago State to improve to 10-8 in WAC play. Grand Canyon is still competing it process of joining the Division I ranks and is ineligible for any postseason play still.
The Lopes are in the upper half of the WAC in both hitting and pitching. GCU has the fourth highest batting average at .276 and have scored 240 runs on the year. Just like their batters, Grand Canyon's pitching staff ranks fourth in the WAC, with a 4.64 ERA.
Individually, Paul Panaccione and Austin Bull lead GCU in the batter's box. The duo is hitting .355 and .333, respectively. They have combined for 38 of the team's RBIs and Bull leads the team with 10 stolen bases.
On the bump, Jake Repavich has been the lopes go to guy, He is 3-2 on the year with a 2.70 ERA and 37-to-11 strike out to walk ratio. When it gets late in games, GCU usually hands the ball off to reliever AJ Franks who has posted a 2.42 ERA in 20 appearances.
Series History vs Grand Canyon
Northern Colorado has struggled when facing Grand Canyon during the programs history with just a 6-36 record. This is only the second time that GCU has visited Greeley though, with the first trip coming in 2014. The Bears would take one of the three games in that series. Last season the Lopes swept the Bears in Arizona including a wild 15-12 series finale.
Offensive Weekend
UNC had a very good offensive weekend at North Dakota. Seven of the team's main hitters had an average over .300 on the weekend, being led by Ryan Yamane going 3-for-7 in two games started. The middle of the line up duo of 3, 4, 5 hole hitters in Maltese, Yamane and Minnick combined to score seven of the team's 19 runs and drove in 9 of th 16 RBIs.
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 .383/.500/.439. For the season he is leading the team with a .320 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 3-1 with a 3.30 ERA, Tanner has walked just 13 players this season and struck out 25. Last week he shut down North Dakota with a 7 1/3 innings outing allowing just one run and striking out eight.
Late Power Spurt
Coming into the year senior Rob Cashel had been known more for his speed on the base paths than his power. That has changed recently as Cashel has flexed his muscles hitting his first career home run on April 10 against Utah Valley, and then his second one this past weekend at North Dakota.
The Race To Mesa Heats Up
Northern Colorado put themselves in solid position as the team hits the stretch run of WAC play. With three series to go Bears are a half-game ahead of UT Rio Grande Valley for the fifth spot in the tournament, and four and a half games clear of CSU Bakersfield who is just on the outside looking in of the six-team 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 his seventh home run over the weekend, and sits one behind Daniel Johnson of New Mexico State for the WAC lead. Maltese is just two behind Minnick, having taken off during conference play with four.
Turning Two
UNC has been doing a good job of turning two this season. The Bears have turned 31 double plays already for the year. Those 31 double plays rank 156th overall in the NCAA and fourth in the WAC. Utah Valley leads the conference with 41 turned.
Yamane The Man
• After missing last year with a foot injury, Ryan Yamane has a few different UNC baseball records within reach. Coming into the 2016 season, he ranks fifth in at bats with 660, tied for12th in hits (190) and now first in walks with 130. Yamane broke the program record of 121 set by Jeff Cheek who played from 1972-75.
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 7-1 on Sunday and 5-24 on any other day of the week.
Swiping Bags
The Bears have been on the run this year, swiping 42 bags so far this season, to rank 141st nationally and fifth in the WAC. Jake Ek leads the team with eight stolen bases.
All Arms in
Tuesday's have become staff days for the Bears. Northern Colorado used seven pitchers again last week at Air Force, and eight this week against the Falcons
• Against Regis, the team used seven different pitchers who would hold the Rangers hitless for the first 5 1/3 innings
• Playing five straight games can take a toll on any pitching staff, for UNC they were able to string together a staff in the final game at Kansas. The Bears used eight pitchers lasting no more than 1 2/3 of an inning, but did see positive results. The eight pitchers combined to allow just two runs and six hits in the game.
Moving Runners Over
Senior Jake Ek moved plenty of runners over last year, finishing the season ranked 18th in the nation with 15 sacrifice bunts. Those 15 bunts helped produce nine runs for the team last year.
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 close out its season series against Air Force on Tuesday, May 10 when they head to Colorado Springs to take on the Falcons.
In the hole
The Bears will stay on the road, headed to the Pacific Northwest next weekend. Northern Colorado will take on league leader in Seattle. The team will finish its road trip on that following Monday at Washington.
Around the Den
Track and field head to the prestigious Drake Relays this weekend, starting on Thursday.
Softball closes out its regular season this weekend in Pocatello, Idaho to face the Idaho State Bengals for three.
Track and field has one last tune up before the Big Sky Championships next week, competing in the Air Force Invite.
The Bears and Lopes begin their series today at 3 pm when RHP Corey Nakakura of UNC faces RHP Cameron Brendel of GCU. Northern Colorado comes into Friday's game with a four game win streak.
| Series Information |
| Friday, May 6, 3:00 pm | RHP Corey Nakakura (3-2, 3.92 ERA) vs RHP Cameron Brendel (4-3, 4.15 ERA) | Live Stats | Audio |
| Saturday, May 7, 11:00 pm | RHP Alex Werbach (1-3, 5.86 ERA) vs LHP Jake Repavich (3-2, 2.69 ERA) | Live Stats |
| Sunday, May, 8, 12:00 pm | LHP Nick Tanner (3-1, 3.30 ERA) vs RHP Tyler Wyatt (2-3, 5.44 ERA) | Live Stats | Audio |
Series Notes: Northern Colorado | WAC
Gameday Happenings
Throughout the whole weekend, UNC baseball will be raising money for the Vs. Cancer Foundation, along with selling shirts to help raise money. Sunday will also be Vs. Cancer Day, as members of the team and staff will be shaving their heads after the game to show their support for those who have been affected by cancer.
For those who are unable to attend this weekend's series, and want to help the team in fundraising, they can click here to go to the team's fundraising page.
Along with Vs-Cancer weekend, Saturday is also Bark in the Park Day! Bring your furry friends with you to the game as UNC takes on defending WAC regular season champions Grand Canyon. The first 25 fans at the game with their dog will receive a special goody bag from UNC Athletics.
Leading Off
• Northern Colorado extended its win streak to four games last weekend, with a three-game sweep of North Dakota.
• The Bears had some excellent starting pitching on the mound in Grand Forks. The trio of Corey Nakakura, Alex Werbach and Nick Tanner combined to go 20 1/3 innings allowing just four runs on 18 hits while striking out 20 Fighting Hawks.
• Tanner earned WAC Pitcher of the Week honors for his performance on Sunday when he allowed just one run over 7 1/3 innings pitched and struck out eight UND hitters.
• It wasn't just UNC's pitching that carries the team to the sweep, but the Bears offense hit well. As a team they hit .273 against the Fighting Hawks including having seven different players hit above .370.
• The Bears were not just getting singles to boost their batting average, but had seven extra base hits out of the 27 total.
• Northern Colorado returns home after a six game road trip this week to host Grand Canyon. The Lopes come into the game with a 10-8 WAC record, two games ahead of the Bears.
• Brett Minnick broke out of his mid-year slump over the weekend when he went 4-for-13 with three extra base hits, scoring three times and driving in five more runs.
Scouting Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon comes into Greeley in the middle of a 10 games in 13 days stretch after facing San Jose State on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
Last weekend, GCU went 2-1 against Chicago State to improve to 10-8 in WAC play. Grand Canyon is still competing it process of joining the Division I ranks and is ineligible for any postseason play still.
The Lopes are in the upper half of the WAC in both hitting and pitching. GCU has the fourth highest batting average at .276 and have scored 240 runs on the year. Just like their batters, Grand Canyon's pitching staff ranks fourth in the WAC, with a 4.64 ERA.
Individually, Paul Panaccione and Austin Bull lead GCU in the batter's box. The duo is hitting .355 and .333, respectively. They have combined for 38 of the team's RBIs and Bull leads the team with 10 stolen bases.
On the bump, Jake Repavich has been the lopes go to guy, He is 3-2 on the year with a 2.70 ERA and 37-to-11 strike out to walk ratio. When it gets late in games, GCU usually hands the ball off to reliever AJ Franks who has posted a 2.42 ERA in 20 appearances.
Series History vs Grand Canyon
Northern Colorado has struggled when facing Grand Canyon during the programs history with just a 6-36 record. This is only the second time that GCU has visited Greeley though, with the first trip coming in 2014. The Bears would take one of the three games in that series. Last season the Lopes swept the Bears in Arizona including a wild 15-12 series finale.
Offensive Weekend
UNC had a very good offensive weekend at North Dakota. Seven of the team's main hitters had an average over .300 on the weekend, being led by Ryan Yamane going 3-for-7 in two games started. The middle of the line up duo of 3, 4, 5 hole hitters in Maltese, Yamane and Minnick combined to score seven of the team's 19 runs and drove in 9 of th 16 RBIs.
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 .383/.500/.439. For the season he is leading the team with a .320 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 3-1 with a 3.30 ERA, Tanner has walked just 13 players this season and struck out 25. Last week he shut down North Dakota with a 7 1/3 innings outing allowing just one run and striking out eight.
Late Power Spurt
Coming into the year senior Rob Cashel had been known more for his speed on the base paths than his power. That has changed recently as Cashel has flexed his muscles hitting his first career home run on April 10 against Utah Valley, and then his second one this past weekend at North Dakota.
The Race To Mesa Heats Up
Northern Colorado put themselves in solid position as the team hits the stretch run of WAC play. With three series to go Bears are a half-game ahead of UT Rio Grande Valley for the fifth spot in the tournament, and four and a half games clear of CSU Bakersfield who is just on the outside looking in of the six-team 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 his seventh home run over the weekend, and sits one behind Daniel Johnson of New Mexico State for the WAC lead. Maltese is just two behind Minnick, having taken off during conference play with four.
Turning Two
UNC has been doing a good job of turning two this season. The Bears have turned 31 double plays already for the year. Those 31 double plays rank 156th overall in the NCAA and fourth in the WAC. Utah Valley leads the conference with 41 turned.
Yamane The Man
• After missing last year with a foot injury, Ryan Yamane has a few different UNC baseball records within reach. Coming into the 2016 season, he ranks fifth in at bats with 660, tied for12th in hits (190) and now first in walks with 130. Yamane broke the program record of 121 set by Jeff Cheek who played from 1972-75.
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 7-1 on Sunday and 5-24 on any other day of the week.
Swiping Bags
The Bears have been on the run this year, swiping 42 bags so far this season, to rank 141st nationally and fifth in the WAC. Jake Ek leads the team with eight stolen bases.
All Arms in
Tuesday's have become staff days for the Bears. Northern Colorado used seven pitchers again last week at Air Force, and eight this week against the Falcons
• Against Regis, the team used seven different pitchers who would hold the Rangers hitless for the first 5 1/3 innings
• Playing five straight games can take a toll on any pitching staff, for UNC they were able to string together a staff in the final game at Kansas. The Bears used eight pitchers lasting no more than 1 2/3 of an inning, but did see positive results. The eight pitchers combined to allow just two runs and six hits in the game.
Moving Runners Over
Senior Jake Ek moved plenty of runners over last year, finishing the season ranked 18th in the nation with 15 sacrifice bunts. Those 15 bunts helped produce nine runs for the team last year.
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 close out its season series against Air Force on Tuesday, May 10 when they head to Colorado Springs to take on the Falcons.
In the hole
The Bears will stay on the road, headed to the Pacific Northwest next weekend. Northern Colorado will take on league leader in Seattle. The team will finish its road trip on that following Monday at Washington.
Around the Den
Track and field head to the prestigious Drake Relays this weekend, starting on Thursday.
Softball closes out its regular season this weekend in Pocatello, Idaho to face the Idaho State Bengals for three.
Track and field has one last tune up before the Big Sky Championships next week, competing in the Air Force Invite.
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