NAMPA, Idaho – The Northwest Nazarene baseball team had been here before.

Less than 24 hours earlier to be exact.

The GNAC-leading Western Oregon Wolves were suddenly threatening to erase another big seventh-inning deficit.

Unlike Friday night's game, though, junior Parker Price came in and slammed the door to earn his first collegiate save as NNU defeated Western Oregon 8-7 to sweep Saturday's doubleheader.

"I didn't feel much pressure," he said. "I knew I was going to come out and throw strikes. I know we have a good defense, so I just wanted to throw strikes and my defense picked me up."

On Friday, an error on a potential game-ending double play ball helped lead to five runs in the top of the seventh to erase a 9-5 NNU lead. The Nighthawks later won in nine innings.

On Saturday, NNU led 8-4 headed to the final inning when starter Ben Johnson ran out of gas.

He gave up a double, home run, home run to open the seventh. Just like that it was 8-7 with no outs.

Price then entered and induced a groundout before giving up a single and a walk.

Blayze Arcano then hit a sharp grounder to third, where Shawn Grandmont picked it and started a game-ending 5-4-3 double play.

"I was just trying to make the play for my teammates," said Grandmont, who had thrown away two balls earlier in the game. "Wanted to get the double play to get us out of there with the W."

The Nighthawks (12-12 overall, 8-8 GNAC) did just that, taking three out of four from the Wolves (12-6, 10-6) who only had three losses on the season before this weekend. NNU won the opener 9-6.

"I think we're the best team in the league honestly," Price said. "Sometimes we have our pitching on and our hitting off or our pitching off and our hitting on, but this team is really starting to come together and once everything meshes we're going to be a really hard team to beat this year."

Price started the scoring in the second game with a solo homer to left center in the first inning. Dylan Cure and Grandmont added RBIs later in the inning for a quick 3-0 lead.

In the bottom of the third, all nine Nighthawks batted and the first seven batters reached base. The first out wasn't recorded until a runner was thrown out trying to steal second.
In all, NNU had five runs on six hits with one left on in the inning.

Johnson pitched solid until the final inning. His final line wasn't pretty – he allowed seven runs on 11 hits – but he did earn his third win of the season.

Cure was 2-for-2 with two runs and two RBIs, Grandmont was 2-for-3 with two RBIs, Larsson Chapman was 2-for-2 and Kyle Redford was 2-for-4 with two runs scored.

"We came out and played pretty good baseball for the most part and took three of four against a really good team," NNU coach Joe Schaefer said. "I think it shows that when we do things the right way, we are capable of beating just about anybody.

"We are still an inconsistent ball club. So hopefully as the season starts to progress, the consistency gets better and we start to have more weekends like this one."

In the opener, NNU jumped out to a 4-1 lead after three thanks to a run-scoring single by Price, a steal of home by Bennett Tabaracci and a two-run double by Grandmont.

After Western tied the game at 4-4 in the top of the fifth, NNU scored four in the sixth and one in the seventh to hold on.

Price and Jesse Hilyard had sacrifice flies, Cure double in a run and Rocco Ferrari singled in another. Price added a run-scoring single in the seventh.

Hilyard (3-0) earned the win, allowing six runs – five earned – on nine hits in 6 2/3 innings pitched. Cooper Webster earned his first save, pitching 2 1/3 innings of shutout ball.

Tabaracci was 3-for-5 with two runs scored, Price was 2-for-3 with two RBIs, Cure was 2-for-3 and Grandmont was 2-for-5 with two RBIs.

NNU heads to Central Washington for four games next weekend.