Box Score

NAMPA, Idaho – This truly was a perfect effort.

The Crusaders dominated on the hill, dazzled on defense and crushed the ball offensively in a 12-0 rout of cross-county rival The College of Idaho in nonconference baseball Wednesday night at Elmore Vail Field on the Northwest Nazarene campus.

"I felt we played a complete game tonight against a very good College of Idaho team," NNU head baseball coach Rocke Musgraves said. "Our pitchers attacked the strike zone, we made the routine plays on defense and our hitters put the ball in play hard."

Seven Crusader pitchers – Colben McGuire, Jake Reppert, Noah Starr, Ross Clevenger, Blake Mitchell, Andrew Groves and Justin Pilgrim - combined in the mid-week shutout, each striking out at least one Coyote batter apiece and combining on a five hitter.

Clevenger (1-0), who along with Mitchell, worked two innings and earned his first collegiate win in the parade of dominating NNU arms.
 

The seven NNU hurlers worked without pressure thanks to an offensive onslaught that began with an infield single for Josh Hatfield and an RBI bad-hop base hit up the middle off the bat of Jesse Hilyard in the bottom of the first.

Hilyard's run-scoring knock proved to be the game-winner, putting NNU (23-18, 11-9 GNAC) on top 1-0. It also opened the floodgates as Kaleb DeHaas added an RBI single before Tucker Campbell hit the first of three Crusader home runs.

Campbell's first homer in a NNU uniform was a three-run blast to left that made it 5-0, and the rout was on.

"You are always worried about timing when your team comes off a layoff, but I felt our guys did a good job working smart this week," Musgraves said, whose team had not played since April 6 when NNU swept a doubleheader at St. Martin's.

That work showed as NNU kept tacking on runs all night as a Hatfield solo homer in the bottom of the second made it 6-0 before the Crusaders got an RBI sacrifice fly from Tyler Davis in the fourth and a solo homer by Tate Glasgow in fifth to make it 8-0.

The Crusaders tacked on two more in the fifth, a run in the sixth and another in the eighth, capping the 12-0 blowout.

Hatfield and Matt Lightfoot each had three hits in the win for NNU, which now carries momentum into a big weekend series as the Crusaders host Central Washington in Great Northwest Athletic Conference doubleheaders on Friday at 3 p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m.

Saturday will be Autism Awareness Day and Senior Day, with a special pre-game ceremony beginning at 12:30 p.m.

Their also will be a special silent auction all weekend long to raise funds to help NNU seniors DeHaas, Glasgow and Tyler Marsh as they look to send a batting cage to the Nicaragua Baseball Academy.