GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Northwest Nazarene's Tyler Tan made his first start Thursday and was strong throughout, but the Nighthawks lost 3-1 to Colorado Mesa in nonconference action.

Tan allowed two runs on four hits with one walk and two strikeouts in seven innings but took the loss.

"He was very, very good today," NNU coach Joseph Schaefer said. "He was keeping guys off balance and was ahead in the count most of the day. He gave up those two solo homers, but outside of those two pitches he was pretty dang good all day."

The Nighthawks (1-4 overall) scratched across just one run, loading the bases with one out in the second and scoring on a bases loaded walk.

John Gonzalez was hit by a pitch leading off and after Quentin Ayers struck out, Shawn Grandmont walked and Haden Keller walked to load the bases. After Kyle Gracey struck out, Colton Moore drew a walk to tie the game at 1-1. Ryan Dearing then struck out to end the inning.

"Their guy has some pretty good stuff and he kind of lost it that inning and gave us some baserunners," Schaefer said. "If we can get somebody to come up with a big hit or a competitive at bat to get a sac fly, we have a chance to get a big inning.

"We get bases loaded like that, we can't get out of there with just run. We have to be better than that."

Gonzalez finished 2-for-3, while Moore was 1-for-2 and Parker Price was 1-for-2. Max Holtzclaw allowed one run on two hits with no walks and a strikeout in relief.

"Overall, we played much better baseball today than opening weekend," Schaefer said. "I think we are progressing. Offensively, we are still striking out too many times, but we faced a couple of good arms today and we competed."

The teams play a doubleheader Friday starting at 12 p.m. MST.