WNC hosts Salt Lakein SWAC opener

The Western Nevada College baseball team, which improved to 11-5 overall, will open Scenic West Athletic Conference play versus Salt Lake on Saturday and Sunday at John L. Harvey Field. The conference-opening doubleheaders begin at noon both days, weather permitting. The teams opted to call off Friday’s game already because there is a 60 percent chance of rain on Friday.

“It’s going to be a long, hard-fought battle in the Scenic West; it seems to be very evenly matched,” WNC coach D.J. Whittemore said.

The 14th-ranked Wildcats turned the tables on their SWAC foes at last week’s round-robin tournament, leading the way by winning three of four games. Salt Lake, College of Southern Idaho and College of Southern Nevada posted 2-2 records, while Colorado Northwestern was 1-3.

Unlike last year, when the Wildcats went 1-3, this year’s results won’t count toward the conference standings.

“It was a great way for us to finish out the weekend, especially coming out and playing real well after an emotional victory the night before and being our fourth game of the weekend,” WNC coach D.J. Whittemore said. “Our guys were warriors and were out there battling every pitch, and CSN did the same. It was a couple of heavyweight fighters, and we landed the last punch.”

The Wildcats are hitting .299 as a team. Conor Harber leads the way at .463 with 11 RBI, while Alex Fife is at .411, also with 11 RBI. Rayne Raven (.347, 6 RBI), Jake Bennett (.333, 4 RBI), Spencer Dorsey (.313, 3 HR, 12 RBI), Joey Crunkilton (.304, HR, 14 RBI) and Sam Hall (.300, 8 RBI) are all at .300 or better.

Likely candidates to start over the weekend are Christian Stolo (1-2, 4.67), Harber (1-0, 1.31) and Max Karnos (3-0, 1,71). They have logged the most starts thus far.