BILLINGS – The MSU Billings baseball team is one win away from capturing the regular season GNAC crown. The reason for their success is none other than a historically great offense.
The Yellowjackets lead the GNAC in just about every offensive category. The ‘Jackets own a .320 team batting average, no other team holds an average over .300. MSUB leads the way with 58 homeruns, which is 25 more than their closest competitor. They also lead the conference in RBI’s, runs scored, doubles, walks and slugging percentage.
The igniters of the offense are former JUCO teammates Ryan Meyers and Kaleo Johnson. The two have been termed the “Bash Brothers” by teammates and for good reason. The two power hitters are absolutely destroying GNAC pitching.
Myers and Johnson lead the conference in batting average, home runs, slugging percentage and on-base percentage.
MSUB manager Aaron Sutton knew they were talented, but their production has even taken him by surpise.
“They’re both tremendous talents, both tremendous individuals,” said Sutton. “I think you look at both those guys, they kind of feed off one another and then our team kind of feeds off of them as well.”
The numbers they are putting up in games are extraordinary, but it’s the long balls they hit in the batting cages that really impress their head coach.
“It’s impressive to watch those guys go out and play,” said Sutton. “They put on a show in (batting practice), and you’re kind of just waiting to see what they’re going to do next when they step to the plate during the games.”
The Yellowjackets aren’t ones to admire long home runs in practice, but Sutton does admit that he can’t help but take a peek after some of their swings.
“Yeah, it’s hard not to. We kind of have a rule of thumb, don’t watch when it goes out when we’re taking BP, but sometimes they send some and I haven’t seen a lot of balls hit that far before in my coaching career,” Sutton said.
The ‘Jackets wrap up their regular season with a four-game series against Central Washington on May 3 and 4. A win in one of those four games will lock up the GNAC title and guarantees them the top spot in the conference tournament.
