ELLENSBURG, Wash. – Northwest Nazarene freshman Kyle Ethridge has been nothing short of brilliant in his brief college career.

On Saturday, he gave up his first run in three starts, but otherwise was sharp leading the Nighthawks to a 3-1 win in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action at Central Washington.

NNU also won a game that was suspended because of darkness Friday, 6-4 in nine innings. Central Washington won the middle contest 10-9.

"Ethridge was outstanding on a tough day to pitch," NNU coach Joe Schaefer said. "It was freezing cold and the wind was blowing out at 20 mph all day. Mistakes got magnified and if you left the ball up it got hit out of the park. He did an awesome job of pitching down in the zone and working in and out and keeping guys off balance."

Ethridge, who had thrown six shutout innings in each of his first two college starts, gave up his first run on a wild pitch in the fourth inning. He went the distance, though, allowing just the one run on four hits with two walks and five strikeouts to move to 3-0 on the season.

Kyle Gracey hit a sacrifice fly, while Kyle Payne, John Gonzalez and Shawn Grandmont all scored runs. Gonzalez and Grandmont were 2-of-3.

In the suspended game, the teams were tied 3-3 after seven innings. The Nighthawks went 1-2-3 in the top of the eighth and then sophomore pitcher Nick Irwin worked in and out of trouble in the bottom half.

Cameron McGrath hit a one-out double and moved to third on an error by the second baseman. Irwin then induced a groundout to second with the infield drawn in. After an intentional and unintentional walk loaded the bases, Irwin got another groundout to escape.

In the top of the ninth, the Nighthawks (5-7 overall, 3-1 GNAC) made Irwin a winner. Ryan Dearing singled in a run, Grandmont drove in another on a fielder's choice and Ben Johnson singled in Dearing for a 6-3 lead.

In the bottom half, Irwin allowed a solo homer and runners on first and third with one out before getting a double play to end the game.

"Our goal in conference is to win the series every weekend," Schaefer said. "We tried to preach to the guys this week that we needed to get off on the right foot in conference play and get some confidence. Now, we get to come home for two weeks and hopefully build on it."

Gracey was 2-for-4 with two runs scored, Johnson had three hits and Grandmont drove in two runs in the victory.

The middle game featured plenty of offensive firepower, but the Nighthawks pitching couldn't hold on to a pair of leads.

NNU jumped out to a 4-0 lead thanks to a two-run home run by John Gonzalez and a solo shot by Grandmont, but the Wildcats (4-10, 1-3) scored three runs in the bottom of the third, two in the fourth and fifth and one in the sixth to take an 8-4 lead.

The Nighthawks responded on a game-tying grand slam by Grandmont in the seventh and took the lead on a Gracey solo shot in the top of the eighth, but the Wildcats tied it on a single, wild pitch and a single and won it on a bases loaded walk.

Max Holtzclaw took the loss, allowing an inherited runner to score and walking three with one strikeout in 0.1 innings pitched.

Grandmont was 3-for-5 with three runs and five RBIs, Gracey, Colton Moore and Johnson were all 2-for-4 and Gonzalez scored twice and drove in two runs.

"We didn't play very well, we didn't pitch well at all and we didn't play great defense," Schaefer said of the loss. "Yet we still showed some resiliency and battled back offensively. It was awesome to see, just the competitive at bats. Shawn has a good chance at being the conference player of the week. He had an awesome weekend. He had a great approach, just squaring up baseballs left and right."

The Nighthawks host Concordia on Friday and Saturday in their home opener at Vail Field.