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NAMPA, Idaho — It was a send-off like no other, and now it's wait and see time for the Crusaders.

Senior Blake Mitchell came out of the bullpen and stabilized Northwest Nazarene on the mound and his teammates never let up on offense, complete a sweep of Great Northwest Athletic Conference foe Concordia with a 16-6 nightcap win after scoring a 9-8 comeback victory over the Cavaliers to open Friday's "senior-day" doubleheader at Elmore Vail Field on the NNU campus.
 

"For this old man it's kind of bittersweet," NNU head baseball coach Rocke Musgraves said after the regular-season finale for seven Crusader seniors. "I've really grown very close to these guys.

"I've got at least one more week with them and I'll just cherish that week, they're pretty special guys."

That week will be in preparation for the GNAC Tournament, which begins Thursday. The site of the tournament is yet to be determined as NNU currently holds a share of the regular-season league title, and can host the tournament with one win by Central Washington at Western Oregon in those team's doubleheader on Saturday in Monmouth, Ore.

But to earn the right to host, NNU (28-20 overall, 23-15 GNAC) needed to sweep the Cavaliers, and needed a huge rally to do that as Concordia held an 8-0 lead in the fifth inning of the opening game.

An RBI single by Brady Baker and an RBI sacrifice fly off the bat of Andrew Helmstadter got NNU rolling with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth, then two innings later the Crusaders scored a touchdown to take the lead.

Helmstadter's three-run home run to left-field highlighted the seven-run surge, and when Brett Nielsen reached on a fielding error, Josh Hatfield hustled home to give NNU a 9-8 lead.

Senior Tyler Marsh (2-2) earned the win in relief and Ryan Nyborg pitched two scoreless innings, striking out five, to earn his eighth save this season and preserve the victory.

"As long as we stay relaxed I think our guys just have the sense we can come back," Musgraves said as NNU rallied from an eight-run deficit for a win for the second time in the last three weeks.
 

The Crusaders continued to ride that momentum, despite a between-game ceremony to honor seniors Marsh, Hatfield, Tucker Campbell, Tyler Davis, Colton Loomis, Mitchell and Ryan Johnson.

Following the ceremony, Davis got things started by blasting his GNAC-leading 14^th home run to right-center, a two-run shot that highlighted a five-run first inning rally.

Concordia answered with five runs in the top of the second, prompting a call to the bullpen to Mitchell (3-2).

The senior, who earned his third save in Thursday's 10-8 series opening victory over Concordia, gave up just one run over the next 4 1-3 innings to earn the win, giving his teammates plenty of chance to break the game open.

NNU did that by scoring in bunches as a Brett Nielsen RBI single snapped the 5-5 tie in the bottom of the second, then Baker hit a solo homer and Helmstadter added a grand slam in the Crusaders second seven-run rally of the day.

Spencer Pollock and Campbell added RBI singles in the fifth inning for NNU, and Johnson hit a solo home run in the sixth, capping the 10-run win.

Davis and Baker finished the twinbill with four hits each and Helmstadter drove in four runs in each game to lead the Crusader offense.