Box Score



WAIPAHU, Hawaii – One wild play changed the ballgame.

A sacrifice bunt attempt in the bottom of the sixth opened the floodgates on a four-run rally for host Hawaii Pacific, which knocked off Northwest Nazarene 5-1 in nonconference baseball late Thursday night.

"I thought tonight we won every part of the game except for the bottom of the sixth inning," NNU head baseball coach Rocke Musgraves said. "We talk a lot about making sure we're not so result oriented right now, that we're more process oriented, and the thing we have to take from tonight is that we just have to do a better job of recovering when things don't go our way."

Firmly holding a 1-0 edge, things started snowballing against NNU (2-3 overall) as Sharks lead-off hitter, Jordan Oshiro, singled and stole second.

Looking to move him to third, Tyler Tokunaga dropped down a sacrifice bunt that opened the floodgates when Tokunaga collided with NNU first baseman Tate Glasgow who was trying to catch a throw from Crusader pitcher Colton Loomis.

Oshiro hustled home on the play, tying the game with no one out, and Tokunaga hurried into second base.

Then came a string of three seeing-eye RBI singles by the Sharks (1-0), as Loomis got ground ball after ground ball, but none got NNU out of trouble.

"We let things kind of snowball on us instead of stepping up and stopping the bleeding," said Musgraves.

It took a diving catch on a foul ball by Helmstadter to record the first out of the inning and turn the game's momentum around, but by then, the Crusaders trailed 4-1.

It spoiled an otherwise very good day for NNU, which got a strong start from Loomis on the hill, solid defense, and hit the ball hard.

Kyle Thomsen led the offense with a pair of hits, including a lead-off single in the fourth that led to the Crusaders only run.

Thomsen moved to second on a wild pitch, advance to third on a Tyler Davis ground out, then scored on a Helmstadter sacrifice fly.

"I thought we swung the bats real well, I thought we pitched real well and I thought we played defense," Musgraves said. "We just had that snowballed sixth inning to deal with, and if we can eliminate those I'm pretty confident against anybody that we play."

NNU has the chance to eliminate those "snowballed" innings Friday as they take on Hawaii Pacific in a doubleheader starting at 7 p.m. (MT).