MONMOUTH, Ore. – Northwest Nazarene baseball split Saturday's doubleheader at Western Oregon, falling 6-3 before taking a 3-1 win to salvage one game in the road series.
NNU moves to 25-19 overall and 17-11 in GNAC play. WOU improves to 18-10 in conference action, one game ahead of the Nighthawks with two weeks left in the regular season.
Game One
Western Oregon broke out for four runs in the bottom of the first to take an early 4-0 lead.
NNU got two back in the second, as
Cameron Bogard tripled home a run and
Tyler Best followed with an RBI double.
WOU pushed their lead back up to four in the third, though, scoring two to make it 6-2. Neither team would score again until an RBI single in the eighth inning from
Duke Pahukoa, but that was as close as the Nighthawks would come as they fell 6-3.
Shane Martin pitched well in relief, allowing two runs in five innings with three strikeouts.
Nick Irwin and
Max Holtzclaw each made scoreless appearances out of the bullpen as well.
NNU had just five hits in the game, with two coming from Pahukoa.
Game Two
Neither team was able to score through the first three innings of game two, before
Kyle Payne drove in a run on a fielder's choice. NNU added another in the fifth as
Parker Price drove home a run to make it 2-0.
Western Oregon cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the inning, scoring on an RBI triple, but NNU erased that run with one of their own in the seventh on a sacrifice fly from
Haden Keller.
Blake McFadden tossed the final three innings, allowing one run and striking out five to earn the save.
Kyle Ethridge started and went 2.2 innings, allowing just one hit, before
Joseph Ihli went 1.1 scoreless frames to earn the win.
NNU had six hits in the nightcap, with two from
Ryan Dearing, who also scored two of the three runs.
Next Up
The Nighthawks will return home next weekend for their final series of the regular season, hosting Montana State Billings on April 29 and 30.
