By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications
SALEM, Ore. -- Willamette University and Pomona-Pitzer Colleges (Calif.) will begin their best-of-five NCAA Regional series on Friday, May 17 with one game at Alumni Field in Claremont, California. The series will continue with two games on Saturday, May 18, and if necessary, as many as two games on Sunday, May 19. The winner of the series will advance to a best-of-three super regional next weekend.
Pomona-Pitzer and Willamettte will each bat last two times in the first four games of the series. Pomona, 32-11 overall and the winner of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Tournament, will bat last in the first game and the third game. Willamette, 28-13 on the season and the winner of the Northwest Conference Tournament, will bat last in the second game and a possible fourth game. If the series goes to a fifth game, a coin toss prior to the game will determine which team bats last.
The Bearcats and the Sagehens will play at 12 p.m. PDT on Friday. A doubleheader will be played on Saturday, starting at 10 a.m. If needed, one or two games will be played on Sunday, with the first pitch set for 10 a.m.
Willamette and Pomona-Pitzer are two of the 60 teams chosen to compete for the 2024 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship. Forty-one teams received automatic qualifying berths as conference champion and 19 teams were chosen from conferences without an automatic berth or as at-large selctions. The NCAA bracket features two best-of-five, two-team regionals, and 14 four-team, double-elimination regionals. Following the regionals and super regionals, the NCAA Division III College World Series will be played May 31-June 26 at Classic Auto Group Park in Eastlake, Ohio.
The Bearcats enter the NCAA Tournament with a .302 team batting average and a team on-base percentage of .414. Willamette his connected on 133 extra-base hits this season, including 82 doubles, six triples, and 45 home runs. WU batters have walked 209 times and have been hit by 82 pitches (48 more than their oppenents). The Bearcats are 53 of 69 on stolen base attempts.
Top batting averages among Willamette's regular starters and top reserves are owned by Jeff Hoffman (Sr., 3B, Salida, CA/Joseph A. Gregori HS), Tassos Foster (Sr., 2B, Novato, CA/Novato HS), Wyatt Thames (Jr., OF, Elk Grove, CA/Huntington Beach HS/Biola University), Luke Piazza (Jr., 1B, Simi Valley, CA/Royal HS/UC Davis), and Clint Walker (Grad., CF, Rocklin, CA/Rocklin HS) ... all above the .320 mark. Hoffman leads the Bearcats with a .375 batting average, while Foster has batted .358, with Thames and Piazza at .355, and Walker at .323.
Willamette pitchers with at least four wins are Layton Wagner (Grad., RHP, Boise, ID/Timberline HS) with a 9-3 record, Steven Verespey (So., RHP, San Ramon, CA/California HS) at 5-3, Pruitt Spritzer at 4-0, and EJ McGrew at 4-4. Brady Joyner (Sr., RHP, Las Vegas, NV/Shadow Ridge HS) leads Willametter with six saves and Logan Haslam (Sr., RHP, San Ramon, CA/California HS) ownes a 1-0 record and two saves. The Bearcats have registered a 3.70 team earned run average with 349 strikeouts in 360 innings.
