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CALDWELL, Idaho — The Crusaders found themselves one or two clutch swings away from a very good day, but instead settled for a split with visiting Central Washington.

After taking the opener of a Great Northwest Athletic Conference doubleheader, 5-2 behind the stellar effort on the hill of Ross Clevenger, the Northwest Nazarene baseball team came up short in clutch base hits, falling 6-3 to the Wildcats in NNU's "home away from home" debut Friday at Vallivue High School.

"It's kind of becoming a story that's happening over and over for us, we're getting beat in pressure situations," NNU head coach Rocke Musgraves said of the nightcap. "A baseball game has those six or seven at-bats that are absolutely huge, and we're losing a lot of those when I think we should be winning because I think were talented enough to win those.
 

"But we're challenging our guys and I just think we're going to accept the challenge."

Much like Clevenger did on the hill in the opener, throwing a complete-game six-hitter at the Wildcats to set a strong tone for the weekend.

Clevenger struck out eight opposing batters and made just two mistakes, giving up a solo home run to Dylan Freyre in the top of the first inning, and another solo shot to Sam Welton in the top of the seventh.

"Ross Clevenger really came out and lifted us when we needed it," Musgraves said. "Great pitching outing, attacked the strike zone; I mean it was strike one all night."

???????Clevenger got plenty of help to overcome those two long-balls, too, as Casey Sheehan quickly wiped out the first with a home run to left field in the bottom of the first inning, tying the game at 1-1 for NNU (5-9 overall, 3-3 GNAC).

A Matt Lightfoot sacrifice fly then broke the tie in the bottom of the second inning, and Sheehan added an RBI single in the rally to give Clevenger a 3-1 lead.

A Casey Cornwell, two-out RBI double in the bottom of the sixth inning, followed by an RBI single by Lightfoot, stretched the lead to a comfortable 5-1 margin, which was plenty for Clevenger (2-1) and the Crusaders.

"We hit enough to win," Musgraves said. "I thought we were taking some better swings.
 

"I thought we played some better defense," NNU's coach added. "In the past we've had a tendency to kind of take our at-bats out in the field and I thought we did a good job of separating that in that game."

And the Crusaders came out with some big at-bats to start the nightcap, as well, as Sheehan led off with his first of three doubles in the contest, then after a Jarod Gonzales walk, Billy King blasted a three-run home run to right to give NNU a quick 3-0 lead.

But it didn't last as the Wildcats (9-7, 3-3) got two runs back in the second inning and tied it in the third.

Then came a series of game-changing moments that all went the Wildcats way.
 
Sheehan led off the third inning with a double but was stranded, then NNU started the fourth inning with back-to-back singles but saw a runner thrown out at third and left the tie-breaker stranded 90 feet away.

Frustrating missed chances to break the tie against Wildcats starter Mackenzie Gaul (3-1) as Musgraves said: "You've got to give their guy credit; Gaul competed better than we competed."

Central Washington then broke the tie in the top of the fifth inning as James Smith hit a two-run homer to left for the Wildcats.

Sheehan led the way on the day offensively for NNU, going 5-for-8 with a home run and three doubles, while Andrew Helmstadter and Colton McCluskey each had two hits in the opener, and Spencer Pollock had two hits in the nightcap for the Crusaders, who wrap up their four-game weekend series with the Wildcats at Vallivue High School on Saturday with a second doubleheader scheduled to start at 4 p.m.