NAMPA, Idaho – In their first-ever NCAA postseason appearance, Northwest Nazarene baseball is now headed to the Division II National Championships.
 
On Saturday, the Nighthawks defeated Western Oregon 12-6 to claim the West Regional title less than 24 hours after their incredible come-from-behind victory in game four.
 
The Nighthawks are now headed to the NCAA Division II Baseball National Championships at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina. The tournament will run from June 5 through 12.
 
The West Regional was the first to finish this weekend, and the other seven programs headed to Cary will be determined later today and tomorrow. NNU is the first GNAC school to ever reach the final eight in Division II baseball, and the baseball program is the first team at Northwest Nazarene to win a regional title since joining Division II in 2002.
 
NNU got on the board immediately in the top of the first, as Ryan Dearing walked and Shawn Grandmont reached on an error before Grant Kerry drilled a single to right-center. A throwing error by the right fielder allowed Dearing to scamper home for the game's first run.
 
Ben Johnson then stepped to the plate and brought home Grandmont and Kerry with a single to right. After the first out of the inning, John Gonzalez made it a five-run first inning with a two-run bomb out to right.
 
The Nighthawks would add a run in the top of the second on an RBI groundout from Grandmont, but the Wolves canceled it out with their first run of the game in the bottom of the third.
 
NNU's firepower was not done, though, as in the top of the fifth Gonzalez and Kyle Payne both launched two-run homers to make it 10-1. Gonzalez' two homers in the game were the senior's 16^th and 17^th of the year, tying and then breaking the NNU single-season record for home runs set by Zach Aakhus in 2008.
 
WOU kept battling however, putting up five in the bottom of the fifth to cut the NNU lead to 10-6. Grandmont promptly got one run back in the top of the sixth, blasting a no-doubter over the fence in left to bring the lead back to five.
 
Martin's day was done on the mound with two outs in the fourth, finishing with a no-decision after allowing five runs on six hits with four strikeouts. Blake McFadden finished the fifth, and freshman Joseph Ihli tossed a scoreless sixth and seventh innings of relief with four strikeouts and ended up with the win on the mound.
 
Payne matched Gonzalez with his second homer of the game in the eighth inning, providing another insurance run for NNU to make it 12-6. After going eight scoreless innings in game one of the regional on Thursday, Kyle Ethridge came back out and retired the Wolves in order in the eighth and ninth frames to close out the victory.
 
The Nighthawks' road to the regional title was not easy as they had their backs against the wall after the opening game of the weekend. Despite eight shutout innings from Kyle Ethridge, NNU fell to WOU in that game 2-1 to put themselves on the brink of elimination.
 
NNU would not quit, though, as Sasha Jabusch shut down the #9 team in the country, Azusa Pacific, in the second game on Thursday to stay alive. Jabusch tossed a complete game, allowing just two runs with 10 strikeouts and no walks in the 3-2 victory.
 
The most improbable and incredible game of the regional happened next in game four, as the Nighthawks pulled out a 7-5 win over WOU despite managing just one hit through the first eight innings. That one hit was a two-RBI triple from Shawn Grandmont, but NNU still trailed 5-2 headed to the bottom of the ninth.
 
With two outs, the impossible happened. Grant Kerry and Ben Johnson hit back-to-back singles before John Gonzalez tied things up with a three-run bomb to left. A hit-by-pitch later, Alex Salsman knocked a walk-off two-run homer to right-center to force a decisive game five.
 
The Nighthawks will head to Cary with their most wins in a season (34) and best winning percentage (.810) in program history.