Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

LACEY, Wash. — The Crusaders knew it'd be a long road to the postseason and a chance to defend their GNAC title.

But with every challenging step of a three-week, 12-game road trip to end the regular season, the Northwest Nazarene baseball team inches closer and closer to the playoffs.

Battling back from an opening 5-4 loss to host St. Martin's, the Crusaders took another step forward as NNU fended off the Saints, 6-4 in the day's nightcap to earn a split of the teams' Great Northwest Athletic Conference doubleheader on Friday.

"I'm very proud of the way the guys came out and handled adversity the second game," NNU head coach Rocke Musgraves said. "Jaramy Jacobs led the charge and really answered the bell when we needed it.

"Sometimes when things aren't going well they can snowball, but I thought our guys did a good job of reversing momentum and battling through some tough times."

An error in each the second and third inning helped the Saints erase a 2-0 Crusader lead, but NNU played unfazed and took control with an RBI single each by Andrew Helmstadter, Colton McCluskey and Brett Nielsen in the top of the fifth inning.

Tim Jones pushed the Crusader advantage to 6-2 in the sixth inning with an RBI, which was plenty of support for Jacobs (6-3), who struck out four and allowed just three earned runs in six innings work on the hill for the win.

Brady Baker iced the win for his fifth save, striking out the final two Saint batters in the bottom of the seventh.

"Brady Baker, as always, came in with nerves of steel and finished the game for us," Musgraves said.

Helmstadter and Nielsen each had a pair of hits in the win, as did Kyle Redford and Spencer Pollock for the Crusaders, who with the victory now need just one more win over the Saints in the teams' doubleheader on Saturday, which starts at 1 p.m. (Mountain time) to secure a third-straight trip to the GNAC Tournament.

The win erased the memory of a near-miss in the first game of the day for NNU (21-23 overall, 19-15 GNAC), which led 4-2 early, but couldn't hold on.

The Saints (14-26, 11-21) took the lead with a three-run rally in the bottom of the fourth inning, then both teams continually threw up zero after zero on the scoreboard, with NNU stranding five runners on base over the final five innings and 13 total in the game.

Jarod Gonzales had an RBI single and McCluskey drove in two runs for a 3-2 NNU edge in the third inning, and Casey Sheehan added an RBI single in fourth inning.

Sheehan, Redford and Pollock each had a pair of hits in the opener.