Box Score NAMPA, Idaho – Win No. 600 will have to wait.
Rain soaked Elmore Vail Field on the Northwest Nazarene campus Saturday afternoon, twice stopping action and putting on hold the Crusaders scheduled Great Northwest Athletic Conference doubleheader against visiting Montana State Billings.
Play was suspended prior to the start of the seventh inning in the opening game of the day's twinbill with the Yellowjackets leading, 9-8.
The affect of Saturday's weather means that NNU coach
Rocke Musgraves' 600
th career coaching victory will have to wait, as the Crusaders skipper has 599 wins.
NNU (11-16 overall, 7-7 GNAC) looked poised to give its coach that milestone victory, jumping in front 4-0 as
Andrew Helmstadter,
Ben Circeo and
Anthony Flatt each had an RBI in a four-run second inning.
The Yellowjackets (7-19, 6-8) responded with three runs in the top of the third before the rain came, forcing a 41-minute delay.
After the delay, the Crusaders tacked on a run in the bottom of the third and got RBIs from
Kaleb DeHaas, Circeo and
Kyle Thomson in the bottom of the fifth to forge an 8-4 edge.
MSU Billings battled back to take the lead as Blake Loran and Luke Reinschmidt each had two-run doubles in a five-run sixth prior to another downpour, which forced the game to be suspended between the sixth and seventh innings.
The game will be finished when NNU visits MSU Billings at the start of May, along with Saturday's second game.
The two teams then will play their schedule four-game series on May 2-3.
