Jon Keller earned the game one pitching victory and blasted a three-run home run in game two
Game 1 Boxscore
Game 2 Boxscore
ELLENSBURG, Wash. - The Northwest Nazarene baseball team swept a Great Northwest Athletic Conference twinbill from Central Washington on Saturday afternoon, taking the opener 13-5 and the nightcap 8-6.
The Wildcats fell to 3-13 overall and 1-3 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play with the losses, while Northwest Nazarene improved to 10-11 overall and evened its GNAC record at 4-4.
NNU outhit CWU 31-20 in the two games, including an 18-11 margin in the opening game that saw Northwest Nazarene post four multiple-run innings against three Wildcat pitchers. CWU opened the game scoring with a three-run second inning, but the offense was quiet until the final two innings when they scored one run each.
Northwest Nazarene was led by the first and last hitter in its lineup, as Sean McDonald (4 for 4, four RBI) and Tyler Nicholson (5 for 5, four runs) combined to go 9 for 9 with five runs scored and six RBI. Each player had a pair of doubles in the contest, and the Crusaders' eighth-place hitter, shortstop Cameron Louie, also scored three runs. Jon Keller earned the win for the Crusaders and is now 2-2 on the season.
In game two, the Wildcats were in position to tie or perhaps win the game in the bottom of the seventh inning after scoring three runs in the sixth to make it a two-run deficit.
Central put itself in a hole early, giving up five runs in the top of the first inning including a three-run home run by Jon Keller. The Wildcats got a single run back in the bottom of the frame on a RBI hit from Rickey McKinney
, who made his first start of the 2010 season in the nightcap. A two-run single by Sanelli in the second inning closed the early gap to 5-3, but NNU scored twice in the fourth and once in the sixth to take an 8-3 advantage.
Keller finished 4 for 4 with four RBI for Northwest Nazarene, while McDonald added three more hits and three runs scored. J.T. Brodrick earned the pitching victory, striking out six in five innings of work, with Ryan Brown collecting his second save of the season.
