CARY, N.C. – Northwest Nazarene baseball ran into a tough Central Missouri team in their opening game of the DII Baseball Championships on Saturday, falling to the top-seeded Mules 9-3.
NNU will now take on Trevecca Nazarene in an elimination game on Monday, June 7 at 2:00 p.m. ET / 12:00 p.m. MT.
"Central Missouri is a really good team, and it showed tonight," said head coach
Joe Schaefer. "When you're down to the final eight teams, it takes a phenomenal defensive effort and doing all the little things right to win, and we just did not quite do that tonight."
"We've had our backs against the wall before, also losing the first game of the regional before winning three straight to get here," added Schaefer. "We'll be ready to go on Monday."
The Nighthawks threatened in the top of the second, as
Alex Salsman singled through left side and
John Gonzalez followed with a double over the right fielder's head to put two in scoring position with one out. NNU was unable to push any runs across, though, as a strikeout and a groundout ending the inning.
In the bottom of the inning, Central Missouri brought across the first run of the game with a one-out RBI single. The Mules added two more in the bottom of the fourth when Cole Taylor hit a two-out, two-run homer down the right-field line to make it 3-0.
The Nighthawks were finally able to get on the board in the top of the sixth, as
Shawn Grandmont notched a one-out single to left, took second on a wild pitch, and came home to score on
Ben Johnson's bloop single into center.
Sasha Jabusch, NNU's starter, had managed a potent Central Missouri offense through the first five innings, only allowing three runs on six hits, but hit the first batter in the bottom of the sixth and was replaced by
Shane Martin. The Mules then tallied four runs while recording just one out before
Joseph Ihli came in for Martin and got a groundout and a strikeout to end the inning.
The Nighthawks were able to get two back in the top of the eighth to cut the deficit to 8-3.
Shawn Grandmont started the rally with a leadoff triple to left-center and came home on an infield single from
Grant Kerry. One out later, Salsman drilled a double off the wall in center that scored Kerry all the way from first. That was all the Nighthawks would get, however, as two strikeouts ended the frame.
The Mules would tack on another run in the bottom of the inning, and NNU was unable to get anything going in the ninth as they fell 9-3.
Grandmont and Salsman finished with two hits apiece to lead the Nighthawks.
