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NAMPA, Idaho – The Crusaders find themselves in the midst of a pitcher's duel – between teammates.

Following the example set by Jake Reppert, who threw a complete-game shutout Friday night against Saint Martin's, teammate Colben McGuire took his turn Saturday afternoon and dazzled on the hill, striking out 11 batters in a 2-hitter, beating the Saints 7-1 to start a sweep of a Great Northwest Athletic Conference doubleheader at Elmore Vail Field on the NNU campus.

NNU took the nightcap 12-4, winning the four game series, three games to one.

It's becoming the trend for the two Crusader seniors this season as they've been playing out the "anything you can do, I can do better" routine on the hill, much to the delight of NNU head coach Rocke Musgraves.

NNU's skipper praised the performance of McGuire, who earned his third win of the season in dominating fashion.

"I think he's matured so much over the last couple years," NNU's skipper said of the senior right-hander, McGuire. "He used to be a guy who tried to strike too many guys out. Now that he's really learning to locate and not so worried about striking people out, he's striking people out just by the simple fact he's pitching."
 

McGuire (3-1) admits that the team attitude inspires him on the hill, too.

"As soon I can get somebody to make a play I get amped up off that stuff," he said, "so as long as my teammates are working hard I'm going to work just as hard for them."

McGuire's teammates did their part, helping slam the door defensively early after the Saints (8-14, 2-6 GNAC) pushed across an early run in the top of the second inning.

Saint Martin's did get another baserunner until the seventh as McGuire retired 16 straight, six on strikeouts.

With SMU shut down, the Crusaders (13-8, 3-1) simply tacked on big inning after big inning to break the game open as Kaleb DeHaas singled home a pair of runs in a 3-run, third-inning rally before an RBI double off the bat of Andrew Helmstadter followed by an RBI single from Tyler Davis pushed the lead to 6-1 after four frames.

A Tate Glasgow RBI double in the seventh capped the scoring, giving McGuire and the Crusaders plenty for the win.

But NNU's offense wasn't done for the day, quickly responding to a 3-run deficit early in the nightcap.

Kyle Thomson, Helmstadter, Matt Lightfoot and DeHaas all drove in a run in the bottom of the third as NNU immediately answered the Saints rally, taking a 4-3 lead in the weekend finale.
 

Tyler Davis' solo home run then capped a 4-run, fourth inning effort by NNU and the Crusaders cruised to the doubleheader sweep from there, tacking on four more runs in the fifth inning to ice the victory.

"I think we did a good job of taking away the outside part of the plate from them and they had to kind of come a little bit more into us," Musgraves said of his team's offense, which plated 38 runs in the four-game series.

"We really started putting together some team at-bats, which was really pleasing to me," he added. "I think that we've got to test more pitches, but at least we're getting better."

Thomson led the offense on Saturday, going 5-for-9, while Davis was 4-for-6 and Josh Hatfield stretched his hit streak to 14 games, going 3-for-5 and hitting safely in both contests.

Helmstadter, DeHaas, Jesse Hilyard and Tucker Campbell also had a hit in each game Saturday for NNU.

Blake Mitchell (2-2) benefitted from all the offense in the nightcap, striking out five and not allowing an earned run in five innings on the hill for the victory.

Having won three straight and taken 3-of-4 from the Saints to opening GNAC play, the Crusaders now look to carry that momentum with them as they hit the road for a four-game league series at Central Washington next Friday and Saturday.