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NAMPA, Idaho – This time, it was the Crusaders who put together the last at-bat comeback.

Down a pair of runs headed to the bottom of the seventh, the Northwest Nazarene softball team showed its resiliency, rallying for a three-run, walk-off win over Western Washington for a split in the two teams' Great Northwest Athletic Conference doubleheader at Halle Field on the NNU campus Friday afternoon.

NNU, which twice last Saturday fell to two last at-bat rallies, rallied for a 7-6 win after falling 4-3 in the day's opener.

"We played very well today," NNU head softball coach Rich Wagner said. "Most importantly, I'm proud of our girls for showing heart and mental toughness to come back from a close loss and get a much needed win."

Trailing 6-4, back-to-back singles by Whitney Carlton and Ali Schauer ignited the last at-bat charge for the Crusaders (3-18, 1-9 GNAC).

After a Lisa Sylvester sacrifice bunt pushed the tying run to second base, Kendra Day and Kiahna Brown each walked, forcing home a run.

The Crusaders tied it when Alyssa Nitschelm reached on an error, then Morgan Thome got to be the hero, singling home the game-winner.

"We did a good job winning our at-bats today," Wagner said, adding of Carlton who was 4-for-4 in the victory, "if we get more offensive performances like Whitney Carlton had today we will continue to win."

Nitschelm and Schauer each had  a pair of hits in the victory for NNU and Ashley Pesek (3-12) struck out two and did not give up an earned run, earning the win in the nightcap in relief of starter Abigail Watkins.

In the opener, NNU rallied twice yet still came up a run short as a Gatalina Schuster RBI triple and a Brianna Kinghorn RBI single tied it for the Crusaders, 2-2, in the bottom of the fourth inning.

The Vikings (12-10, 5-5) plated two more in the top of the fifth leading to another NNU comeback as Lily Paschal had an RBI single, getting the Crusaders close.

But in each of the final three innings, NNU put the tying run at second only to strand that runner there in each frame as Western Washington held on for the win.

Paschal had a pair of hits to lead the offense in the opener for NNU, which hosts Western Washington in another doubleheader starting at noon on Saturday.