Box Score

NAMPA, Idaho – This time, the Warriors were the comeback team.

Riding high after rallying for a first-ever win over perennial NAIA powerhouse Lewis-Clark State, the Northwest Nazarene baseball team started strong but couldn't hold on as the Warriors rallied for eight runs in the final three innings in a 12-5 win over the Crusaders at Elmore Vail Field on the NNU campus Friday evening.

"Mentally we just weren't as tough as we were last night," NNU baseball coach Rocke Musgraves said.

In Thursday's series opener between the nonconference foes, the Crusaders (16-25 overall, 11-15 GNAC) erased a six-run deficit to top the Warriors, 11-10. The two teams wrap up their four-game series with a doubleheader Saturday starting at 1 p.m.

Friday, an Andrew Helmstadter RBI single followed by back-to-back bases loaded walks to Kyle Thomson and Ben Circeo put NNU on top 3-1 after two innings.

Jake Ferdinand held the Warriors (36-7, 24-4 NAIA West) at bay in an emergency relief role after starter Tyler Marsh left in the second inning with an injured arm.

But the Warriors eventually tied it on a two-out, two-run single by Kevin Hawk, then LCSC took the lead, 4-3, on a two-out, RBI single by Cody Weiss in the top of the sixth.

NNU tried to answer, but stranded two runners in the fifth, another in the sixth and two more in seventh before LCSC broke the game open with game-to-back four-run rallies.

"We just kept missing that clutch hit tonight," Musgraves said. "And I thought we threw a lot of pitches where we were not all in and you just can't do that against them, that's an exceptionally good hitting baseball team."

The bottom of the batting order once came through for the Crusaders, though, following up an 8-for-14 performance in Thursday's win with a 6-of-12 night Friday that saw eight-hole Helmstadter lead NNU's offense, going 3-for-4 with a two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth, while lead-off hitter, Thomson, and seven-hole hitter, Jeremy Richardson, each added two hits.

A good sign for the Crusaders, who continue to battle hard in preparation for a key six-game series next weekend at Montana State Billings to close GNAC play, a series that will decide the league's third and final postseason berth.

"We have to know who we are," Musgraves said. "We're maybe not as talented as the teams we're playing but that doesn't mean we cannot win championships. But we have to be all-in mentally every pitch, and that's what we're talking about right now.

"I would say where all-in 90 percent of the pitches, it's just that 10 percent of those pitches of the baseball game that are killings us, offensive and defensively.

"But I've got to give my guys credit, we have come a loooong way."