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ELLENSBURG, Wash. — The race for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference baseball title got a bit tighter on Friday, much to the chagrin of the Crusaders.

Central Washington closed the gap on league leaders Northwest Nazarene and Western Oregon by sweeping a GNAC doubleheader from visiting NNU, topping the Crusaders, 13-6 and 6-5 on Friday.

"I thought we came out ready to play, but I felt we pressed instead of competed," NNU head baseball coach Rocke Musgraves said.

"We have some great leaders on this team, I'm sure we'll be prepared to compete tomorrow," added the Crusaders skipper whose team plays two more games at CWU on Saturday with first pitch at 1 p.m. (Nampa time).

The Wildcats came out on fire, plating three runs in the bottom of the first inning and taking a 7-0 lead in the second.

NNU (24-18 overall, 19-13 GNAC) chipped away with RBI singles by Andrew Helmstadter and Spencer Pollock in the third inning, and a Helmstadter RBI base hit in the fourth, but never truly threatened the Wildcats lead.

Pollock and Tucker Campbell each added an RBI in a three-run ninth for NNU, which got four hits from Pollock and three each from Campbell and Ryan Johnson in the loss.

NNU turned things around quickly in the nightcap as Josh Hatfield had an RBI single and Campbell added an RBI sacrifice fly, putting the Crusaders on top 2-0 in the top of the second inning.

Pollock then added an RBI single in the third as NNU forged a 4-1 lead.

Colton Loomis held that lead, cruising into the fifth before the Wildcats (24-20, 20-14) rallied for three runs to tie it, but NNU responded in their next at-bat with a Tim Jones' RBI single for a 5-4 lead.

Central Washington tied it in the bottom of the sixth once again, though, then after reliever CJ Gettman struck out the side in the top of the seventh for CWU, Dylan Freyer hit a lead-off, walk-off home run to right field to give the Wildcats the win, and sweep, in the bottom of the seventh.

"Pressure makes people do funny things. We have to breathe and compete with a baseball players mindset, not a linebacker's mindset," Musgraves said after the sweep.

Pollock, Brett Nielsen and Campbell each had a pair of hits in the nightcap for NNU.