PORTLAND, Ore. – The Northwest Nazarene baseball team could just never get the big hit they needed Thursday.

The Nighthawks loaded the bases in both the eighth and the ninth innings, but couldn't find a way to get the tying run across in a 3-2 loss to Saint Martin's in a GNAC Baseball Championships elimination game at Concordia University.

"It was kind of the story of our tournament," NNU coach Joe Schaefer said. "An inability to capitalize on scoring opportunities. We had a lot of hits early in the game too and could only come up with one run.

"We hit a lot of balls hard and we didn't get rewarded for it. Even the ball Ben (Johnson) hit to end the game was scorched to center, but it didn't go anywhere in the wind."

The Nighthawks (24-24 overall) loaded the bases in the top of the ninth with two outs as Parker Price singled and Kyle Redford and Rocco Ferrari drew walks. Johnson then lined a ball to centerfield, but it was caught.

In the eighth, Kyle Redford walked and moved to third on a bunt and a groundout. Shawn Grandmont was then hit by a pitch and Dylan Cure walked, but Jesse Hilyard struck out swinging to end the threat.

NNU had two on and no outs in both the first and second innings, scoring one in the second on a single by Michael Hults.

In the third, the Nighthawks again put the first two batters on but couldn't get a run home.

Meanwhile, Cooper Webster was sharp on the mound.

He pitched eight strong innings allowing three runs – two earned – on four hits with one walk and six strikeouts.

He made one bad pitch in the fourth inning and Saint Martin's took advantage.

After walking the leadoff batter, a fly ball was dropped in center field to put runners at second and third. Austin Feist then hit a 2-0 pitch over the wall in left for a three-run home run. The only runs the Saints scored on the day.

"Cooper did a great job," Schaefer said. "He made a mistake pitch to the guy and just left it up over the plate. Outside of that inning, he was phenomenal. Did an unbelievable job."

The Nighthawks got a run back in the sixth as Cure scored Johnson on a groundout to make it 3-2, but that was the closest the Nighthawks would get.

Price finished 2-for-5, while Cure, Redford and Hults were 1-for-3 and Bennett Tabaracci was 1-for-5.

The trip to the playoffs was the fourth in five seasons for the Nighthawks and helped send out the seniors after a junior campaign that saw them finish 19-31.

"I'm just grateful to have the senior leadership that we had," Schaefer said. "A lot of them were upset how last year went and they were on a mission to make sure we had a good year this year.

"I think we did better than most people thought we would, but we had a lot of confidence in ourselves and thought we could've done a bit more. All things considered, they did a good job rebounding from last year and getting this thing moving in the right direction."

Saint Martin's will now play the loser of the MSU Billings vs. Western Oregon semifinal.