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NAMPA, Idaho — The Crusaders somehow "willed" themselves to a win, the perfect finish to a day that saw the Northwest Nazarene baseball team never stop competing.

Back-to-back hustle doubles by Casey Sheehan and Billy King helped NNU rallied in its final at-bat to beat visiting Western Oregon, 4-3, to sweep a Great Northwest Athletic Conference doubleheader Friday night at Elmore Vail Field on the NNU campus.

That after the Crusaders led throughout in a 13-10 win over the Wolves to start the day in a battle for the mid-season GNAC lead.

"Compete is the perfect adjective to describe today," NNU head coach Rocke Musgraves said after the twinbill sweep gave the Crusaders the league lead by a half game.

"On a day like today, with that wind at 25 to 30 miles per hour, it's tough to pitch and play defense. I thought we pitched well and we defended real well on a day that was tough to do both of those," NNU skipper added.

"So I thought that was a character builder for us."

And the Crusaders (14-14 overall, 12-6 GNAC) continued to hit well, too, which they've done for the past four weeks, as NNU blasted four home runs in the doubleheader.

But it was a pair of balls that only went about halfway to the wall that proved to be most beneficial in the nightcap, helping NNU erase a 3-2 deficit.
 

Sheehan led off the bottom of the sixth with a bloop down the right-field line, and the speedy center-fielder never let up, sliding safely into second base on the lazy pop-up to start the Crusaders' comeback.

King then rocketed a ball off the glove of Wolves starting pitcher Trey Smith, a shot that ricocheted into right-field as King raced around first and slid safely into second base, and Sheehan scored.

"Couple hustle doubles, that's what I liked," Musgraves said. "Both King and Sheehan basically willed themselves to second base."
King then hustled home on a hot shot off the bat of Kyle Redford, an RBI single back up the middle that snapped a 3-3 tie.

"Redford just stung that ball," NNU's coach said. "That was clutch, clutch hitting."

Just enough to give the Crusaders the win as Jaramy Jacobs (3-2) battled through the first 6 2-3 innings, then turned it over to Nick Bland, who got the final out to close out his third save of the season.

That came after NNU jumped up early with a six-run rally in the bottom of the first inning in the day's opener against the visiting Wolves (11-8, 10-5), who chipped away all game long but couldn't take the lead away from Crusader started Ross Clevenger (3-2).

Clevenger battled on the hill into the eighth inning before turning the game over to the bullpen, which got the final four outs as Brady Baker earned his second save to close out the win.

The key for Clevenger was pitching with the lead, and a short memory, as the Wolves trimmed the early edge to 6-4, but never managed to get the best of NNU's starter.

"He's got that next pitch mentality, like, 'hey, if this one doesn't work out I'm going to go get them with this next pitch,'" Musgraves said of Clevenger, who settled in and let his offense back him up.

NNU's offense did just that as Brett Nielsen and King each hit two-run home runs, helping give Clevenger a 12-4 lead at one point before he left the game.
Casey Cornwell added three RBIs in the opening win for NNU, while Jarod Gonzales and Tim Jones also drove in a pair of runs each.

Spencer Pollock added three hits in the opener, and had a solo homer in the nightcap, and Sheehan added a solo home run in the late game, as well, for the Crusaders, who host Western Oregon in another doubleheader Saturday at 1 p.m.