SPOKANE, Wash. - Northwest Nazarene University baseball players Jon Keller and Jesse Gwaltney have been named the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Player and Pitcher of the Week, as announced this morning by the conference office in Spokane.

 

Keller, (1B, 6-1, 200, Sr., Eugene. OR – Treasure Valley) had nine hits in 18 at bats, including four doubles and a triple and also drove in eight runs as the Crusaders swept a four-game series with Montana State Billings.  Keller leads both the Crusaders and the GNAC in RBI's with 48, only six away from the NNU single-season RBI record of 54.  Hitting .370, Keller has already broken the NNU single-season record for doubles with 20.  He and teammate Sean McDonald are battling for both the single-season doubles record and the team batting crown, as McDonald is currently hitting .371 and has 21 doubles.  The previous record for doubles was set by Matt Lowe (17) in 2002, while the RBI record was set by Zach Aakhus (54) in 2008. 

 

Gwaltney, (5-11, 205, Jr., Vancouver, WA – Seton Hall) improved to 5-3 pitching the Crusaders to a 6-1 win against MSUB,  In eight innings, he allowed four hits and a single unearned run.  He walked one and struck out nine.  Gwaltney leads the Crusaders in innings pitched with 67 1/3 and has a team-high 54 strikeouts in 11 starts this season.

 

The Crusaders will travel to Saint Martin's University this Friday and Saturday for the final four games of the season against the Saints.