Game One
Game Two

NAMPA, Idaho - The Northwest Nazarene baseball team split a Great Northwest Athletic Conference doubleheader with Western Oregon University on Saturday afternoon at Vail Field.  The Crusaders defeated the Wolves 6-5 in the opener and Western Oregon bounced back to win the nightcap 7-3.

 

Tied 5-5 going into the bottom of the ninth, the Crusaders (22-10, 7-9 GNAC) rallied against Western Oregon (16-10, 9-3 GNAC) reliever Gavin Hite. 

 

Zach Hibbard led off with a walk and advanced to second on a Cameron Louie sacrifice bunt.  Louie reached first on the bunt as the Wolves made a play on Hibbard at second, however Hibbard beat the throw to give the Crusaders runners on first and second.  Sean McDonald followed with a bunt for a base hit down the third base line to load the bases.  After Ty Windall's fly ball out to second base, Derek Bettinson produced the game-winning single to right field, scoring Hibbard from third to give the Crusaders a 6-5 victory.

 

McDonald (2-1) earned the win for NNU and Hite (1-1) took the loss for WOU.

 

Windall (3 for 5, 1 RBI) led the Crusaders at the plate in the opener and both McDonald and Bettinson had two hits as the Crusaders out hit the Wolves 12 to 8.

 

The Wolves were led by Aaron Headrick and Bo Folkinga who each had two hits and an RBI.

 

Western Oregon's Kirk Lind (1-1) earned the win in game two, holding the Crusaders to just one hit in his six innings of work.  Lind struck out two, walked four and stranded five Crusader runners on base.  Brad Carter pitched the seventh, allowing all three NNU runs on four hits.

 

McDonald, Windall and Ryan VanBeek all had singles for the Crusaders and Bettinson added a two-run double in the seventh.  McDonald started the game on the hill for the Crusaders and took the game two loss.

 

Headrick (3 for 4, 3 RBI) and Miles Kizer (2 for 2) paced the Wolves offensive attack in the nightcap.

 

The split moves the Crusaders to 22-10 overall and 7-9 in GNAC play.  The Wolves are now 16-10 overall and 9-3 in league action.

 

NNU will play their final four home games of the season next weekend, hosting Central Washington University on Friday and Saturday at Vail Field.  Due to the re-scheduling of this weekend's WOU series to Nampa because of poor weather in Oregon, NNU will now play the final three weeks of the season on the road.