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NAMPA, Idaho – Mixed results are providing the Crusaders some valuable learning lessons to start this baseball season.

Northwest Nazarene started Saturday by fending off Concordia, 4-3, then looked to have a sweep of the day within its grasp when a two-out rally in the top of the ninth inning allowed visiting The College of Idaho to steal a 14-10 victory away from NNU at Elmore Vail Field.

"We're going through some growing pains right now and sometimes those lessons can be painful," said NNU head baseball coach Rocke Musgraves, whose team also played tough in the ninth on Friday only to see a play at the plate decide a game in Lewis-Clark State's favor. "If we learn from our mistakes then I can say this was a positive weekend."
 

Musgraves says the first mistake came against the Cavaliers, as NNU went to closer Andrew Groves to hold on for the win.

Groves earned his second save of the season in relief after a run in the top of the eighth by Concordia made things a bit too close.
Groves closed out the game for Blake Mitchell (1-0), who battled into the seventh to earn his first win.

He was helped by an NNU offense that came alive in the bottom of the fifth as Kyle Thomson doubled home a run, Tyler Davis knocked in Thomson with a ground ball and Andrew Helmstadter capped the rally with the third double of the frame.

Davis then added an RBI single up the middle in the seventh, which proved to be the game winner for NNU.

Thomson went 3-of-5 and Helmstadter and Kaleb DeHaas each added a pair of hits in the win.

But using Groves proved costly later in the day as NNU got into a slugfest with the Coyotes.

Jesse Hilyard hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the first to spot NNU to a 3-0 lead, and Davis hit a solo homer to center in the fifth, as the teams traded eight runs each over the first six innings.

DeHaas then broke the tie with one swing in the bottom of the seventh, doubling home two runs with two outs for a 10-8 Crusader advantage.

It looked like the lead would hold as NNU had two outs in the top of the ninth, but the Yotes had two runners aboard and were threatening.
 

"Not capitalizing on opportunities in the first game we created a situation where we had to use our closer, which thinned out our bullpen for the second game today," Musgraves said.

And the Crusader bullpen couldn't hold on as The C of I rallied for six runs to steal the win.

That spoiled a stellar offensive game for NNU, which got three more hits from Thomson. Matt Lightfoot also went 3-for-4 and Davis added a pair of hits in the contest.

But Musgraves feels the lessons learned over the four-game opening weekend series will help take his team a long way this season.

"I've got a smart team so I'm sure we are going to learn from games early on," he said. "We have some guys really answering the bell, which encourages me; now we need to get everyone on the TEAM-page and we'll be ok.

"I'm a big fan of this group and they deserve a lot of patience."

Next up for this group is a five-game road trip to Hawaii where NNU plays at Hawaii Pacific starting Thursday evening.