Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

PORTLAND, Ore. – The Crusaders baseball team showed amazing resolve Friday in Portland, Oregon.

Not once, but twice in a nonconference doubleheader, Northwest Nazarene battled long and hard to win in 12 innings, topping host Concordia 3-2 in 12 innings to start the day, then surviving the marathon twinbill with a 9-8 win in 12 innings in the nightcap.

"We won a lot of the competitive situations tonight," said NNU head baseball coach Rocke Musgraves. "Many ballgames come down to 10 or 15 big pitches and good teams win those.

"I am proud of how we are starting to welcome pressure situations," NNU's coach added.

Larsson Chapman welcomed one of those pressure situations as he singled to lead off the top of the 12^th in the day's opener, then pinch-runner Tim Jones scored in his place on an infield single by Matt Lightfoot off Concordia's pitcher.

That made a winner of NNU closer Andrew Groves (1-0), who worked the final two innings of relief after a dazzling effort on the hill by Colton Loomis, who gave up just one run in 10 innings before leaving the game with the score tied, 1-1.

Lightfoot, Chapman and Josh Hatfield each had a pair of hits in the opening win for NNU (9-6), which got an RBI single from Kaleb DeHaas in the fifth to tie the game at 1-1, and an unearned run in the 11^th when Andrew Helmstadter reached on an error.

The marathon action continued in a high-scoring nightcap that saw Crusaders get an RBI double each from Hatfield and Helmstadter in the top of the first.

The Cavaliers (5-10) answered with four runs in the bottom of the third, but NNU got an RBI single from Tyler Davis, a two-run triple from Helmstadter and an RBI single from Nick Strange to retake the lead in the top of the fifth.

Concordia got a run back in the bottom half of the inning, and after a Hatfield RBI single made it 7-5, the Cavaliers tied it with two more in the bottom of the sixth.

After five scoreless innings, DeHaas broke the deadlock with a RBI double in the top of the 12^th, and he scored on a Lightfoot RBI single to center which proved to be the game-winner.

Justin Pilgrim (1-1) earned the win in relief with two innings work on the hill, giving up just an unearned run in the Cavaliers last at-bat before striking out Concordia's Cole Buruse to strand the tying run at third.

Lightfoot, Hatfield and Tate Glasgow each had three hits in the nightcap for NNU, which resumes its four-game series at Concordia on Saturday at 1 p.m. with another nonconference doubleheader.