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Baseball catcher's mitt

Reppert and McGuire set tone from hill in Crusaders split at Concordia

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Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

PORTLAND, Ore. – Crusader pitchers Jake Reppert and Colben McGuire once again dominated on the hill.

Unfortunately for Northwest Nazarene, only one got the win in a nonconference baseball doubleheader as NNU took the opener 4-0 against host Concordia. The Cavaliers salvaged the final game of the four-game series with a 3-1 win in Saturday's nightcap.

"Reppert and McGuire were warriors today," said NNU head baseball coach Rocke Musgraves, who was pleased with several of his pitchers, which included starter Colton Loomis and closer Andrew Groves who teamed up for a 3-2 win in 12 innings on Friday.

"Reppert, McGuire, Loomis and Groves did a great job of leading by example on the mound this weekend," NNU's skipper added.

Following back-to-back, 12-inning wins on Friday night, the Crusaders (10-7) needed someone to take charge for a weary NNU squad, and Reppert did just that.

The 6-foot-5 lefty came in with a 2-0 record, a 1.29 ERA and 16 Ks in 21 innings for the Crusaders and simply improved on all those stats as he threw eight shutout innings at the Cavaliers (6-10), striking out six and scattering four hits to improve to 3-0 on the season.

He turned it over to Nick Strange who struck out one Cavalier batter in the ninth, finishing off the shutout.

That NNU pitching duo was helped out by a couple of big swings in the top of the fifth as Matt Lightfoot's two-out double plated a pair of runs, then Josh Hatfield double Lightfoot home for a 3-0 lead in the frame.

Andrew Helmstadter then drove in a run with an RBI fielder's choice in the top of the eighth, giving Reppert and Strange more than enough offense to earn the win.

"Concordia handed us a couple runs in the first game and Reppert and Strange made them stand up," said Musgraves.

Hatfield went 2-for-4 to lead the NNU offense in the opener.

The Crusaders came up a bit shy of the sweep, though, as a trio of unearned runs spoiled a standout pitching effort by McGuire (2-1), who struck out six and scattered five hits in the contest.

But a two-out error in the second inning led to a run for the Cavaliers, and two more defensive miscues led to a pair of runs in the fifth for Concordia.

That was just enough as NNU's lone run came on a solo homer to left by Strange to lead off the top of the fifth, tying it 1-1.

"Game 2 was a bit discouraging because of so many uncontested pitches," said Musgraves, who despite the setback saw plenty of promise in his team's performance on the weekend in the Crusaders final nonconference tune-up before hosting St. Martin's on Friday and Saturday in back-to-back doubleheaders to open Great Northwest Athletic Conference play.

"We have some guys starting to gives us championship efforts and hopefully their unselfish attitudes will keep spreading," he said.

Strange, Lightfoot, Helmstadter and Hatfield each had a base hit in the nightcap, with Hatfield stretching his hit streak to 10 straight games, matching the team-high mark set by Tyler Davis earlier this season. 
 
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