PORTLAND, Ore. — The Montana State Billings baseball squad took home Great Northwest Athletic Conference team of the week honors Monday while four individual Yellowjacket athletes were named GNAC players of the week.
The MSUB baseball team went 3-1 last week, and the Yellowjackets' Derek Waddoups became the program's all-time winningest coach.
A 3-1 series triumph on the road is always a positive within the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, but for the Montana State Billings baseball team last week’s wins carried some extra meaning.
With the Yellowjackets’ 10-3 victory in the series finale at Saint Martin’s on Saturday, Waddoups earned his 136th career victory —the most of any head coach since the program was formed in 2006. Now in his seventh season in charge, Waddoups surpassed Rob Bishop who won 135 games at the helm during his tenure from 2011-16.
"Anytime you reach a milestone in life it gives you an opportunity to reflect on the journey that brought you to this point,” said Waddoups. “In sports we celebrate wins, but I believe there is so much more to coaching.
"I am beyond grateful for the relationships that MSUB baseball has brought to my life and it starts with the players. I love what each of them contribute to the overall experience and I have been blessed to work with so many outstanding people along the way.”
The three wins last week were important for Montana State Billings, which moved to 18-17 overall and kept itself in second place in the GNAC standings at 12-8 in league play.
Meanwhile, four Yellowjacket athletes also earned league honors Monday. Rae Smart was named GNAC women's field athlete of the week in track, River Smith garnered baseball player of the week, Sam Coxen earned baseball pitcher of the week, and Bowdie Fox was named men's golfer of the week.
Smart excelled in all four of the throws at last week’s Northwest Nazarene Open in Nampa, Idaho. Her top performance was a provisional qualifying mark in the shot put, as she threw a season-best 47-10½ feet (14.59 meters) to move her name up to No. 16 on the NCAA list.
Smart also hit a season-best in the javelin at 137-3 feet (41.84 meters), which was the third-best in the conference this spring.
Smith supplied the pop for the Yellowjackets in last week’s series victory over Saint Martin’s. All seven of his hits on the weekend went for extra bases as he homered twice and collected five doubles on his way to a slugging percentage of 1.500. Overall he was 7 for 12 (.583) with three RBIs, seven runs scored and an on-base percentage of .667.
Smith upped his season batting average to .328 and his slugging percentage to .552 in his first season as a regular starter in the Yellowjacket lineup.
Coxen delivered his best start of the year on Friday against Saint Martin’s, setting the tone in an eventual series victory for the Yellowjackets. Taking the hill in the series opener, Coxen authored seven shutout frames with five strikeouts and just six base runners allowed.
The right-hander scattered five hits and issued just one walk in the 100-pitch effort, collecting his fourth win of the season. It was Coxen’s first scoreless outing of his sophomore season, and it lowered his ERA to 3.76 across 55 innings pitched in 2026.
Fox was the conference’s top performer at last week’s RJGA Palm Valley Classic in Goodyear, Ariz. The Yellowjacket junior tied for eighth place among a field of 108 players including four GNAC teams. Fox carded a three-round score of 9-under-par 207 (68-69-70) in what was his best performance of 2025-26 to date. Fox’s stellar opening round featured an eagle on the par-5, 525-yard 14th hole to go along with three birdies and 13 pars.
He shook off a double bogey on the first hole in round two, playing the rest of the round at 5-under-par on his way to a 69. Fox finished the event with three birdies and just one bogey his final time through the course. Overall he made 13 birdies across the 54-hole event. Fox lowered his season stroke average to 75.4, ranking him fourth on the team.
