Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Testing themselves against the preseason West Region favorite on Wednesday, the Crusaders were good, just not great.

The Northwest Nazarene baseball team battled with some big innings but still came up short, falling 8-6 and 9-5 to host Cal Baptist in a pair of nine-inning nonconference games.

"We flat out got our teeth kicked in," NNU head baseball coach Rocke Musgraves said. "Right now we're averaging giving up 10 walks and hit-by-pitches a game. That's just too much unnecessary traffic on the bases."

NNU pitching walked or hit 16 batters in 16 innings in Wednesday's doubleheader.

"And at the plate we're simply not fighting with two strikes," NNU's coach added. "When you put the ball in play you have a 35 percent chance of getting on base.  When you strikeout you have a zero percent chance.

"That's the bad news, the good news is that we have good people in the program; I have complete confidence that we will use this week to get better," Musgraves added.

In the opener, the Crusaders — coming in having split their season-opening series 2-2 at Cal State Los Angeles — rode that momentum to a quick lead on a Jarod Gonzales RBI double in the top of the first inning.

The eighth-ranked Lancers (5-3 overall) responded with three runs in their half of the inning, then kept tacking on runs forcing NNU (2-4) to play catch-up almost the entire game.

Down 8-2 headed to the top of the ninth inning, NNU prove it still wasn't out of the ballgame, though, as a late charge made things interesting.

Colton McCluskey's RBI hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded got the Crusader charge started, then Casey Sheehan's two-out, bases loaded triple to right-center suddenly cut the lead to 8-6 and brought the tying run to the plate.

But that's where the charge ended as Lancers closer Brody Robinson got the final out to stave off NNU's comeback.

Gonzales led the NNU offense as he added an RBI double in the third inning, as well, and picked up three of the Crusaders eight hits in the ballgame.

NNU kept right on rallying to start the nightcap as Kyle Redford had an RBI single in the top of the first and McCluskey capped a four-run rally with a two-run double that spotted the Crusaders to a 4-0 lead after a half inning.

The lead didn't last past the first, though, as the Lancers tied it in their at-bat, then took a 6-4 lead in the second.

Gonzales' third RBI double of the day, into the left-center gap in the top of the fifth inning, got NNU as close as 6-5 down, but the Lancers plated two in the sixth and another run in the eighth inning, then didn't allow another Crusader ninth-inning rally, completing the sweep.
 
Gonzales added two more hits in the nightcap, going 5-for-9 on the day, while Braden Hirsch was 2-for-4 in the second game for NNU, which resumes its series with the highly-ranked Lancers with a doubleheader tentatively scheduled for 4 p.m. (Mountain time) on Thursday.