Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

OAKLAND, Calif. — The Crusader baseball team got some valuable learning experience on the road, and did it with a smile.

Northwest Nazarene rolled to a doubleheader sweep of the Academy of Art, 9-2 and 9-4 on Saturday, but head coach Rocke Musgraves says there is still room for his team to improve.

"We survived the weekend and learned that we have to still keep working on the finer points of the game," NNU's skipper said.

But the Crusaders (7-6 overall) will get to work on those finer points with a two-game win streak to propel their efforts, as NNU next plays a four-game series at Concordia (Ore.) on Friday and Saturday before opening the Great Northwest Athletic Conference race at home on March 6-7.

NNU finds itself on a win streak thanks in part to the pitching efforts of Jake Reppert (2-0) and Colben McGuire (2-0) who combined struck out eight Urban Knight batters.

"Pitching and defense worked out of trouble on numerous occasions," Musgraves said. "Our pitchers did a good job of not giving up free passes, when you can do that you can get hit around and still minimize damage."

Reppert got plenty of help from an offense that rolled along in the opener as Kaleb DeHaas drove in the game's first run in the top of the second on a sacrifice fly, then a two-run double from Tucker Campbell put NNU up 4-0 in the third.

Andrew Helmstadter and Josh Hatfield each added an RBI single in the fifth and sixth inning, respectively, for NNU.

Helmstadter finished the opener 3-for-5 with four RBIs while Kyle Thomson, Hatfield and Campbell each added a pair of hits.

NNU then went right to work in the nightcap as Jesse Hilyard had a sacrifice fly and Campbell singled in a run, giving McGuire a 3-0 lead.

The Urban Knights (2-8) tied it in the third, but NNU plated two runs in each of the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to finish off the day's sweep.

Nick Strange hit a two-run home run in the top of the seventh for NNU, which also got a pair of hits each from Thomson, Tyler Davis and Helmstadter in the nightcap.