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ELLENSBURG, Wash. — It was a disheartening Saturday for the Crusaders, who couldn't fend off a walk-off win by host Central Washington, nor come up with one final big hit as Northwest Nazarene fell in its own comeback bid.

At the end of the day, the Wildcats scored both victories, 6-5 in the opener and held on for an 8-7 win to close out a Great Northwest Athletic Conference doubleheader sweep.

"I think that the ballgames today came down to feel — feel for the game of baseball, the little things," NNU head coach Rocke Musgraves said. "We simply didn't make enough pitches and didn't execute defensively.

"You can practice something a zillion times, but unless you can slow the game down between the lines you won't execute.

"We make the game harder than it is."

The sweep gives the Wildcats (26-16 overall, 20-12 GNAC) a two-game lead over the Crusaders (20-22, 18-14) for second place in the league standings, with both teams chasing first-place Western Oregon, as well as trying to secure a spot in the four-team GNAC Tournament held in Portland, Ore., May 10-12.

The Crusaders looked to be in good shape early on Saturday as a two-run home run by Brett Nielsen helped them take a 3-1 lead, Andrew Helmstadter added a solo homer, and Kyle Redford added one more dinger to put the Crusaders on top, 5-1 in the sixth inning.

But the Wildcats chipped away with two in their half of the sixth, another in the seventh, then got a walk-off, two-out RBI single by Christopher Dalto in the bottom of the ninth to complete the comeback win.

Dalto then got the chance to thwarted NNU again in the nightcap as the Wildcats built an 8-4 lead headed to the final inning — the top of the seventh.

A two-run home run by Colton McCluskey made it interesting, and it got even more so when Helmstadter went back-to-back with a solo homer to left, cutting the difference to 8-7.

A walk to Tim Jones with two outs brought the winning run to the plate, but Dalto coaxed a final out to close out the win and stave off the Crusader comeback.

"The game of baseball is perfect, but it doesn't require you to be perfect," Musgraves said. "It just asks you to know the game and do the little things."

NNU will look to do a few more of those little things next weekend as they continue a three-week road trip to close out the regular season, playing doubleheaders at St. Martin's this coming Friday and Saturday.