Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 NAMPA, Idaho – The Northwest Nazarene University baseball team needed a sweep Friday, but fell short splitting with Western Oregon in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference doubleheader.

The Nighthawks banged out 21 hits in a 14-7 win in the opener, but lost 8-6 in eight innings in the nightcap, leaving their postseason hopes hanging by a thread.

NNU (19-31 overall, 17-23 GNAC) is one game behind Concordia, which plays Saint Martin's twice Saturday. The Nighthawks need Saint Martin's to win both games to send NNU to the GNAC tournament as the fourth seed.

"The only thing I can really say is that toward the end we gave ourselves a chance and that is all we can really do," NNU's Zach Penrod said. "We kind of got off to a rough start and we knew we had to battle for it. We gave ourselves a chance in the last couple of series, and now we just wait and see and pray to God that we make it."

Penrod was a big reason the Nighthawks were in a position to sweep Saturday. He went 5-for-5 with four runs scored and two doubles in the opener and then was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk in the nightcap.

In the second game, the Nighthawks rallied from deficits of 3-0 and 4-2 to take a 6-4 lead in the fourth inning thanks to a Coltin Brink two-run double, a Parker Price run-scoring groundout and an RBI double by Penrod.

But the Wolves chipped away scoring once in the fifth on an error and once in the sixth on a soft single to centerfield.

They won it with a pair of two-out run-scoring singles in the ninth.

"I'm proud of our guys," NNU coach Rocke Musgraves said. "They never gave up. We kept battling and battling and I hope that is the life lesson they get out of this – just never give up."

The doubleheader was the final home games for Casey Sheehan, Brink, Adam Paulson and Ross Clevenger.

Sheehan finished the day 4-for-10 with a two-run home run, a double and five RBIs. Brink was 2-for-9 with two RBIs, Paulson allowed six runs on six hits in 5 2/3 innings in a no decision and Clevenger gave up two runs – none earned – in 3 2/3 innings of relief in the nightcap.

For Clevenger it was a bit of redemption as he came into the season as the No. 1 starter, but struggled before bouncing back the last two weeks.

"This season has not gone how I wanted it to," he said, "but these last two appearances I was just having fun really, and giving it all I had.

"I think we had a ton of missed opportunities in the first half (of the season), but these last two or three weeks we played playoff caliber baseball. It was just too little too late."