Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

NAMPA, Idaho - The Crusaders had their chances.

Northwest Nazarene brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the sixth and the winning run to the plate in the seventh, but neither managed to reach base as Great Northwest Athletic Conference front-runner Western Oregon held on for a 5-3 victory to complete a doubleheader sweep of the Crusaders at Elmore Vail Field on the NNU campus on Friday.

The lack of clutch hits in close games has been a frustration for NNU (15-22 overall, 11-13 GNAC) all season long, and continued to be so Friday.

"It's embarrassing, you don't do that to the game of baseball," NNU baseball coach

gave NNU an early 1-0 edge in the first game, blasting a solo home run over the left-field fence in the second inning.

NNU once again used the long ball in the nightcap to grab a 1-0 lead as Tate Glasgow blasted his team-leading fourth dinger to left, giving starting pitcher Aaron Vaughn an early advantage.

The Wolves (25-15, 18-8) managed to get to the GNAC's leader in wins, Vaughn, helped by a couple of defensive miscues by the Crusaders, scoring two unearned runs in the top of the third to take the lead for good.

"I thought Vaughn threw the ball well for us, we just keep shooting ourselves in the foot," Musgraves said.

Which included at the plate.

Down 3-1, Kyle Thomson walked to drive in a run for NNU in the fourth before a bases loaded, two-out strikeout silenced a chance for the Crusaders to do more damage.
WOU then answered with a run in the fifth and another in the seventh.

The Crusaders tried to rally, but an inning-ending double play kept them off the board in the bottom of the sixth.

Down three in their last at-bat, Jeremy Richardson came through with a seeing-eye single up the middle to drive in Thomson, but with two on and one out, NNU struck out then had a runner thrown out at third trying to steal on a pitch in the dirt, ending the game.

Josh Hatfield led the Crusaders offense with three hits, while Richardson and Helmstadter each had a hit in each game for NNU, which looks to rebound when it hosts Western Oregon again Saturday in another doubleheader starting at noon.