NAMPA, Idaho – Cooper Webster hadn't started a game in two years.

If he keeps pitching like he did Saturday, he'll be starting one every week.

The junior transfer from Lane Community College threw a five-hit shutout, walking two and striking out eight to help the Northwest Nazarene baseball team hold off Concordia 1-0 on Saturday in the second game of a doubleheader.

"I've been having a couple of rough outings the last couple of times I was out there," he said. "So today, especially after that first game (a 14-11 loss), I knew I needed to be quick. So I tried to stay in the zone and work inside and work the curve ball in there."

Webster had allowed seven runs in his last three appearances, recording just four outs in the process. So he was a surprise starter Saturday, but after the Nighthawks had used six pitchers in the opening loss, plus seven pitchers in Friday's doubleheader there weren't many other places to turn.

"We kind of had him on the backburner," NNU coach Rocke Musgraves said. "We wanted to bring in someone who can throw strikes and Cooper is a kid who can throw strikes.

"He showed me some fire today that I haven't seen and I'm very proud of him."

The plan was for Webster to maybe throw four innings. He had only pitched 10 innings the entire season, but he was so economical (76 pitches) that Musgraves kept him out there.

Even when Concordia loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh.

"All three of those balls were not hit well," Musgraves said. "That is a bad luck thing and it seems like we've been rolling in some bad luck here lately. I was so fired up for my guys. Because instead of saying, 'Oh, here we go again.' We made that pressure defensive play at the end of the game and made the pitch."

Webster threw three consecutive curve balls to Concordia's Isaiah Hatch, who rolled over on the third one to third baseman Justin Folz. Folz made a strong throw across the diamond for the out and the much-needed victory.

"His slider was working really well and it was a pitch we could throw in any count," NNU catcher Dylan Cure said. "We got to a lot of 2-0 counts and when we got to those counts, instead of throwing a fastball down the middle we went to the slider and he was able to get that over pretty much every time."

Concordia's Trevor Huddleston matched Webster pitch for pitch until the sixth inning when the Nighthawks finally touched him up.

Casey Sheehan and Cure had one-out singles to put runners at first and second and then Jesse Hilyard ripped a double down the left-field line scoring Sheehan for the game's lone run.

Cure finished 2-for-3 with a double, Hilyard had his double as well as a stolen base and Sheehan's single were the only hits for NNU (7-15 overall, 5-7 GNAC) in the nightcap.
In the opener, there wasn't much pitching to be had for either team.

Concordia scored in each of the first five innings. The teams combined for 37 hits, 11 walks and two hits batsmen.

The Nighthawks took a brief 2-1 lead in the first on a long home run by Zach Penrod to right, but Concordia went back ahead 5-2 in the top of the second.

Trailing 9-4 in the fourth, the Nighthawks got two more on a Kyle Redford double and a Sheehan sacrifice fly. Concordia again answered with a pair of runs as the Nighthawks pitching staff couldn't get outs when they needed to.

Cure homered in the sixth, Hilyard homered in the eighth and Sheehan hit a two-run single in the ninth to give the Nighthawks a chance, but they couldn't overcome the Cavaliers.

Thankfully for them, they had Webster waiting in the nightcap.

"That was huge to get the second win," Cure said. "You've got to split series when you can.

"We've got to throw strikes and be in the zone. I think our hitting showed that it is pretty promising this weekend, but we got to get in the zone with strikes because that is our big problem."

Parker Price was 4-for-6 with two doubles and four runs scored, Sheehan was 3-for-5 with three RBIs, Hilyard was 3-for-5, Redford was 2-for-5 with two doubles and two RBIs, Penrod was 2-for-5 with three RBIs and Bennett Tabaracci was 2-for-4 with two runs scored.