Richard Martinez

OUAZ Set to Face Vanguard in GSAC Championship Series

5/3/2021 3:00:00 PM

GSAC BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES OUAZ SPIRIT (20-21, 9-7 GSAC) at #9 VANGUARD LIONS (35-13, 22-10 GSAC)
Series Details	Game 1 • Wednesday, May 5 • 11 a.m. • Costa Mesa, Calif. • Dean Harvey Field Game 2 • Wednesday, May 5 • Approx. 3 p.m. • Costa Mesa, Calif. • Dean Harvey Field Game 3 • Thursday, May 6 • 11 a.m. • Costa Mesa, Calif. • Dean Harvey Field (If Necessary)
Video Stream	ouazspirit.com/digital
OTT App	NAIA Network (Android TV, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku)
Live Stats	ouazspirit.com/sidearmstats/baseball
Tickets	Closed to Public
Game Notes	OUAZ (pdf)
Series Central	OUAZ Central \| GSAC Central
All times local to Arizona (Mountain Standard)

SPIRIT NOTES
The OUAZ baseball team will make its first appearance in the GSAC postseason when they face No. 9 Vanguard in the best-of-three GSAC Championship Series this week in Costa Mesa, California.

Game one of the series will feature Vanguard as the home team with an 11 a.m. first pitch on Wednesday. OUAZ will be the home team in game two which is scheduled for Wednesday around 30 minutes after the conclusion of game one.

If necessary, game three will be played at 11 a.m. on Thursday with the home team being decided via a coin toss following game two. All three games of the series will be played at Dean Harvey Field on the Vanguard campus.

OUAZ enters the GSAC Championship Series with a 20-21 overall record and 4-6 in its last 10 games. The Spirit are 9-8 on the road this season and have won four of the last five road games they played.

The Spirit qualified for the title series by winning the GSAC East Division with a 9-7 record. They held off The Master's by one game to earn this first appearance in an NAIA postseason in program history.

SERIES NOTES
OUAZ has a 1-4 record against Vanguard with all of those meetings coming in Surprise. The teams haven't played since the 2019 season when the Lions swept a four-game conference series at Surprise Stadium.

AT THE PLATE
The Spirit finished the regular season with a .306 batting average and .804 OPS. The team is 43rd in the NAIA by averaging 9.83 hits per game and they had 10-plus hits in a game 20 times during the season.

OUAZ has turned those hits into 6.24 runs per game. The team has scored in double figures 10 times – going 9-1 in those games – and they have scored at least one run in 22 consecutive games.

Adrian Salazar leads the team with 51 hits and he is batting .329 with 11 doubles and a team-leading 28 RBIs. He has a hit in 33 of the 40 games played and leads the club with 15 multi-hit games. Salazar is the OUAZ all-time leader with 193 hits and 95 RBIs.

Jared Crockett leads the Spirit and is third in the GSAC with his .398 batting average. He has at least one hit in 27 of the 32 games played with 15 multi-hit games. Crockett enters the postseason on a six-game hitting streak during which he is batting .417 with 10 hits.

Elijah Celaya is batting .331 with 40 hits and 22 runs scored. His season includes eight doubles, two triples, and one home run. Celaya has 11 multi-hit games while adding a team-best five outfield assists.

Nathan Tarver is hitting .347 with a .971 OPS. He leads the team with four home runs and ranks second with 26 RBIs. Tarver has recorded an OUAZ-best eight multi-RBI games this season.

ON THE MOUND
The Spirit will carry a 5.23 ERA into the postseason where they rank third in the GSAC. The staff leads the conference with four shutouts while holding the opposition to a .279 batting average. OUAZ records 8.01 strikeouts per nine innings and the opposition holds a .767 OPS.

Anthony Quattrocchi leads the Spirit into the postseason with a 7-1 record with his seven straight decisions won a new OUAZ record. Quattrocchi leads the GSAC and is 21st in the NAIA with a 2.10 ERA. He has already set the program record with 76 strikeouts – first in the conference – and his .182 opponent batting average is 11th in the NAIA. A two-time GSAC Pitcher of the Week, Quattrocchi has thrown five complete games and has recorded at least six strikeouts in each of his last eight starts.

Gage Johnson will enter postseason play with a 6-2 record and his 2.37 ERA trails only Quattrocchi in the GSAC rankings while placing 34th in the nation. He also has thrown five complete games and Johnson is fourth in the conference with 64 strikeouts. Opponents are batting .249 off of Johnson and he has not allowed more than four runs in any of his 11 appearances this season.

NAIA BASEBALL WORLD SERIES – NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP OPENING ROUND
The winner of the GSAC Championship Series earns an automatic berth into the NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round to be played at campus sites on May 17-20. The nine host sites will be announced in the coming days and each will host a five-team double-elimination bracket with the winners advancing to the NAIA Baseball World Series in Lewiston, Idaho on May 28-June 4.

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