GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. - Northwest Nazarene baseball took no notice whatsoever of Colorado Mesa's top-five national ranking on Thursday, routing the Mavericks 18-6 to improve to 4-1 on the year. 

CMU entered the game ranked second by Collegiate Baseball and fifth by the NCBWA, but it was the Nighthawks that jumped on the Mavericks for 18 runs on 19 hits. NNU slowly built an 8-0 lead through five innings before adding on 11 more runs in the final three frames.

Six Nighthawks had multi-hit games, led by four hits apiece from Ryan Dearing and Haden Keller. Keller also scored five runs and had three RBI, while Dearing scored four times with one run batted in. John Gonzalez had two hits, both launched over the fence for three-run homers resulting in six RBI on the day. Shawn Grandmont wasn't far behind with four RBI, going 3-5 with three runs scored as well. 

Grant Kerry also had two hits and two RBI, while Ben Johnson added a pair of hits and Colton Moore contributed a two-run homer.

While the bats were on fire, NNU's starter was equally as good on the mound. Kyle Ethridge gave up just one run in 6.2 innings, striking out three while walking just one. 

Keller got things started in the first with an RBI double and scored on Grandmont's single for a 2-0 lead. In the third, Kerry drove in two runs on a double, and then three runs came across the plate in the fifth on one of Gonzalez's homers to put the Nighthawks up eight. 

Colorado Mesa got one run back in the bottom of the sixth, but NNU responded with nine runs over the next two innings to put the game completely out of reach. 

The Nighthawks have three more games in Grand Junction during the Courtyard by Marriott Leadoff Weekend, facing New Mexico Highlands for two games tomorrow before a rematch with Colorado Mesa on Saturday.