Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

LACEY, Wash. — Another good day ended up spoiled for the Crusader baseball team, which settled for another split on the road.

Ross Clevenger dominated on the hill and Tyler Davis hit a pair of solo home runs as Northwest Nazarene rolled to a 4-1 win over host St. Martin's in the opener of a Great Northwest Athletic Conference baseball doubleheader on Saturday.

Another strong performance on the hill, from starter Justin Pilgrim, set the tone for NNU in the nightcap, but the Crusaders failed to fend off the Saints who rallied for a 4-3 win.

"We pitched well enough to win today, but we made some untimely errors this weekend," NNU head baseball coach Rocke Musgraves said, as a costly inning-opening error to start the bottom of the sixth led to a two-run, game-winning rally for the Saints in the weekend finale.

"I felt we had a good game plan going into this weekend, but we didn't execute when the game was on the line," Musgraves added.

At least not in the nightcap, though the Crusader played outstanding in the opener, led by Clevenger (4-1) who scattered five hits and allowed just one run over eight innings work.
 

Offensively, NNU (20-14 overall, 15-9 GNAC) jumped in front in the top of the first on the first of Davis' two homers, and added an RBI single by Josh Hatfield in the second.

A fielding error by the Saints in the top of the fourth put NNU on top 3-0, then Davis' second blast of the game — and GNAC leading 10^th of the season — made it 4-0.

The Saints managed to push a cross a solo run in the eighth, spoiling the shutout, but Crusader closer Ryan Nyborg worked a perfect ninth for his GNAC-best sixth save of the season.

NNU went right back to work in the nightcap as a dropped fly ball led to a run and Jesse Hilyard added an RBI single, spotting Justin Pilgrim to a 2-0 lead before he took the hill in the series finale.

Pilgrim battled his way through four innings, giving up just a solo home run to Kaelen Hirashiki before turning it over to Nyborg.

NNU's closer, who already had finished off the Saints in two of the weekend's first three games, couldn't hold the lead this time as SMU plated a run in the fifth, tying it 2-2.

A David lead-off single in the sixth followed by an RBI double by Andrew Helmstadter quickly untied it for NNU, but the Saints rallied for two in their half of the inning, helped by the NNU defensive miscue, to steal the win.

"We will go back to work this week to build solid habits," Musgraves said, looking ahead as the Crusaders are back on the road next weekend closing out a three-weekend road trip with doubleheaders at Montana State Billings on Friday and Saturday.