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NAMPA, Idaho — The Crusaders did exactly what they needed to do to win Saturday, and now they find themselves in first place.

The Northwest Nazarene baseball team out-slugged the St. Martin's Saints, 17-7, to start the day, then broke open a pitcher's duel late for a 7-2 victory in the nightcap of a Great Northwest Athletic Conference doubleheader at Elmore Vail Field on the NNU campus.

The sweep gave NNU 3-of-4 in the weekend series, which opened GNAC play, earning the Crusaders a share of first place.

"It's early," NNU head baseball coach Rocke Musgraves said, adding, "I think this St. Martin's club is going to surprise a lot of people because they can sure swing the bat."

NNU proved they can swing it pretty well, too, and in timely situations as the Crusaders used big rallies in their final at-bat to win the late game of both days' twinbills.
 

In Saturday's finale, the Crusaders (8-6 overall, 3-1 GNAC) were unfazed as the Saints (4-10, 1-3) tied the game at 2-2 with a two-out RBI double in the top of the sixth inning.

Andrew Helmstadter stepped into the batter's box to lead off the NNU half of the sixth and banged a double off the wall in right-center, then hustled home on a Spencer Pollock RBI single through the right side of the infield.

That ignited a five-run rally that saw Brady Baker and Ryan Johnson each single in a run, and Colton McCluskey knocked in two more.

"We spent the last 10 days working on the last two innings, getting better the last two innings," said Musgraves, whose team broke a scoreless tie in the sixth on Friday night with an eight-run rally for an 8-0 win. "In this conference everything's so close, it's always going to come down to those last two innings, and the way we came out … it tells me our guys our buying into each other and what they need to do."

The late winning rally benefitted reliever Ryan Nyborg (1-1) who struck out three in 1 1-3 innings to earn the victory, closing out a strong performance by starter Justin Pilgrim who scattered four hits and struck out two in 5 2-3 innings work.

Just a couple of dominating efforts on the hill by NNU, which also got a stellar 6-2-3 inning, eight-strikeout effort from Ross Clevenger (1-0) in the opener.

"Bottom line is you've got to give your team a chance to win and that's what he did today," Musgraves said of Clevenger's game-one outing. "I was very proud of him, he's always going to do that for us.
 

"Great job by the pitching staff today," NNU's coach added.

Clevenger was relieved by Blake Mitchell who gave up just a run on four hits with a strikeout, as he finished up the final 2 1-3 innings for the Crusaders in the opener.

The Crusader offense made it easy on NNU's pitchers in game one, plating runs in six of their eight at-bats.

Trailing 3-1, a Ryan Johnson solo homer cut the margin in half, then a Tucker Campbell RBI double and a Helmstadter sacrifice fly put the Crusaders on top for good.

Spencer Pollock, Johnson, Kyle Redford and Tyler Davis all knocked in a run for an 8-3 edge after five innings, then Jesse Hilyard hit a solo homer and Redford singled in two runs in a six-run sixth.

Tyler Davis and Blake Adkins each homered in the eighth for NNU, capping a Crusaders offensive onslaught led by Davis, who was 3-for-4 with three RBIs, and Johnson, who went 3-for-3 with three RBIs.

Johnson also had a pair of hits in the nightcap, as did Helmstadter, Pollock and Baker for the Crusaders, who host Montana State Billings in doubleheaders next Friday and Saturday.