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NAMPA, Idaho – The Crusaders march to a first-ever NCAA postseason berth hit a speed-bump Friday afternoon.

Central Washington scored early and got two dazzling pitching performances to keep Northwest Nazarene off balance at the plate, sweeping the teams' Great Northwest Athletic Conference doubleheader, 9-2 and 5-0, at Elmore Vail Field on the NNU campus.

"Today was just one of those rough baseball days where nothing you do seems to be right, but what we need to do now is flush it and get ready for tomorrow because tomorrow is a big day for us," said NNU head baseball coach Rocke Musgraves. "Championship teams learn how to deal with the adversity and come out the next day and change things, so I'm very confidence we will do that."

Four unearned runs in the top of the first for the Wildcats, a rally capped by a two-run home run by Jonathon Dailey, started the tough day for NNU (23-20, 11-11 GNAC).

That proved to be enough as the Crusader offense never really clicked, though NNU did rally for a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, closing to 6-2 down.

Tim Jones started the Crusader comeback with a triple and scored on a Josh Hatfield sacrifice fly. Tyler Davis then walked, took second on a wild pitch and scored on a Jesse Hilyard RBI single.

But that was it for NNU, which collected just four hits in the game against Wildcats starter Zach Johnson, who struck out six in the complete-game win.

Mitch Yada would follow his teammates lead in the nightcap, striking out four and scattering six hits in a complete-game shutout of the Crusaders.

Jeff Beckman's RBI single in the top of the second inning of the nightcap proved to be the game-winner, getting Central Washington (20-21, 11-15) on the board before the Wildcats plated three in the third inning and an insurance run in the sixth.

Hatfield led NNU's offense in the second game with a pair of hits while Hilyard had two base knocks in the opener for the Crusaders, who look to bounce back Saturday when they host Central Washington in another GNAC doubleheader.

Saturday's twinbill will be action-packed both on the diamond and off as a pre-game Autism Awareness Day ceremony kicks things off at 12:45 p.m.

The Crusaders will then honor nine seniors who will be playing their final home regular-season game, between games, and there will be a silent auction to raise money to help some of the NNU baseball seniors send a batting cage to Nicaragua.