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NAMPA, Idaho – Tate Glasgow jump-started the Crusaders with one swing Saturday. Then Andrew Helmstadter restarted NNU once again after three hours of waiting.

The Northwest Nazarene baseball team overcame a three-plus hour rain delay sparked by those big swings, and powered by two strong pitching performances, swept Saint Martin's 8-3 and 6-1 in the teams' Great Northwest Athletic Conference doubleheader at Elmore Vail Field on the NNU campus.

"Perseverance, that's the word that kind of comes to mind," said NNU coach baseball Rocke Musgraves, whose team has erased the memory of an 1-8 season-opening road trip by winning six of its last eight now to share first place in the early GNAC standings. "We just had to be patient until we got our baseball legs under us.

"We're getting some quality pitching and starting to score a few runs," Musgraves added. "I still think we can do better defensively, but some of the major pieces are coming together."

The offense for NNU (7-10 overall, 3-1 GNAC) has been a bright spot of late, and was again Saturday as Tate Glasgow's second home run of the weekend, a three-run blast to left in the bottom of the first, gave the Crusaders a quick 3-0 lead.

The Saints (2-9, 1-3) chipped away with two in the top of the second against NNU starter Colden McGuire, then everything stopped as rain delayed action for 3 hours, 8 minutes.

When the game resumed, Aaron Vaughn (3-1) took over on the hill for NNU and sat down the Saints in the top of the third, then the Crusader offense went right back to work.

Nick Morelli, Kaleb DeHaas and Josh Hatfield all singled, loading the bases for Helmstadter, who cleared the bases with a three-run double, and NNU was well on its way again.

"That's something that we have to talk about a lot with this club is being ready," Musgraves said of the fast start to the game, and after the rain delay. "I think they're getting it, I think they're trying to get ready a little sooner.

"It's almost like the first few games we'd get slapped before we become awake and I think we're starting to get the first punch in, so that's certainly nice to see."

Ryan Johnson finished off the third-inning rally with an RBI single, chasing home Helmstadter, and it was more than enough for Vaughn who struck out five and allowed just one run in seven innings of relief.

Johnson led the offense, going 3-for-5, while Sam Cook and Morelli each added two hits in the win.

NNU didn't settle for just the game-one win, though, handing the ball to Noah Starr in the nightcap and letting the freshman righty from Bishop Kelly High School in Boise, Idaho work his magic on the hill.

Starr (1-1) struck out five and scattered five hits in a complete-game, seven-inning effort to earn his first collegiate victory.

"He beats up the strike zone with a couple different pitches," Musgraves said of Starr. "That's the whole key, if a pitcher can beat up the right part of the strike zone with a couple pitches, it don't matter how hard you throw."

With Starr well in control, his teammates went to work with plenty of offense as Ben Circeo's RBI groundout in the second tied the game 1-1 before a bunt single by Johnson pushed home Josh Hatfield and put the Crusaders in front 2-1 after two innings.

DeHaas added an RBI single in the third for a 3-1 lead, then Anthony Flatt's two-run triple chased home Circeo and Cook for a 5-1 lead.

A Cook ground ball in the fifth then plated the final run, giving NNU more than enough to complete the sweep.

Glasgow, Flatt and DeHaas all finished with a pair of hits in the nightcap for NNU, which now hits the road for two weekends, playing a four-game GNAC series at Central Washington next Friday and Saturday, then four games at Western Oregon on March 14-15. NNU returns home to host Montana State Billings on March 28 and 29.