ELLENSBURG, Wash. – The Northwest Nazarene baseball team blasted three home runs during a seventh-inning rally Friday to defeat Central Washington 12-8 to split their GNAC doubleheader.

The Nighthawks dropped the nightcap 5-2.

In the opener, NNU trailed 5-4 heading into the seventh when Parker Price hit a solo homer to tie the game. A batter later, Dylan Cure homered to give NNU a 6-5 lead. Another batter later, Rocco Ferrari gave the Nighthawks pitching some cushion with another solo homer.

"We got a couple of good swings off in that inning and that was kind of the nail in the coffin," NNU coach Joe Schaefer said. "We put up a big number early being aggressive running the bases as well as having good bats."

NNU jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second, but was scoreless until the seventh.

The Nighthawks (13-13 overall, 9-9 GNAC) added two more runs in the eighth and three in the ninth.

Cure (1-2) earned his first collegiate win in relief of Greg Casper. Cure allowed four runs on six hits with a strikeout in 4.2 innings pitched.

Ben Johnson was 4-for-5 with a double and three RBIs, Price was 3-for-5 with the homer, a stolen base, two runs scored and three RBIs, Bennett Tabaracci drove in two runs and Michael Hults scored two runs.

In the nightcap, Cooper Webster allowed five runs on nine hits with one walk and 10 strikeouts, but the offense couldn't back him up.

Larsson Chapman was 3-for-3 with a solo home run and two runs scored, while Shawn Grandmont was 1-for-3 with an RBI in the loss.

"We take pride in not allowing big innings," Schaefer said. "A big inning is three or more runs and we put a big emphasis on limiting damage. It is OK to give up one run here and there, but when things snowball and get out of control, those are tough to come back from."

Central scored three in the fifth thanks to a fly ball that fell in and a throwing error.

The two teams play another doubleheader at 1 p.m. MDT on Saturday.

"I think we know what the recipe is for winning baseball," Schaefer said. "We are fairly short-handed on the mound, but if we can limit our pitch counts we can get deep in the game."