NAMPA, Idaho – Northwest Nazarene baseball is taking care of business on their end, as the Nighthawks swept Montana State Billings on Friday with two 9-4 victories to draw even with Western Oregon in the race for the top seed in the conference tournament.
NNU improves to 27-19 overall and 19-11 in GNAC play. WOU is off this week, sitting at 18-10 in conference action, but will play a four-game set against Saint Martin's next weekend while NNU is off in the final weekend of the regular season.
Game One
Parker Price led off the scoring with a solo home run in the top of the first, starting a string of five consecutive hits to start the Nighthawks half inning.
Duke Pahukoa added a two-run double and
Alex Salsman capped the frame with another RBI double to take a 4-0 lead.
MSUB started to chip away, though, scoring three runs over the next four innings to cut the lead to 4-3.
Haden Keller pushed the lead back to two with an RBI double in the bottom of the fifth, but an MSUB homer cut it back to 5-4 in the top of the sixth.
The scoring was all on NNU's side from there, though, as Price launched his second homer of the game, this time a two-run shot, in the bottom of the sixth before a run came across on a wild pitch and
Tyler Best notched an RBI single in the eighth.
Price was 2-4 in the opener with two home runs and three RBIs. Best added three hits, while Keller and Salsman also had multi-hit games with two.
Keller also earned the win on the mound, going five innings and allowing three earned runs while striking out nine.
Blake McFadden tossed the final four innings to earn the save, allowing just one hit and striking out two.
Game Two
Once again, Price led off the game with a solo home run to left.
Rumble Reyes then drilled a two-run shot in the second inning as part of a four-run frame, with Price and Best also picking up RBI singles.
The Yellowjackets got on the board in the top of the third on a solo homer, but NNU responded with four more in the bottom of the inning to go up 9-1. Salsman starting the scoring with a two-run homer before
Colton Moore scored on an error and
Haden Keller walked with the bases loaded to bring home a run.
MSUB cut into the advantage with three runs in the final three innings, but the Nighthawks had more than enough runs on the board to hold on for the 9-4 win.
Price reached base in all five of his plate appearances in game two, going 4-4 with a walk and two RBIs. Reyes and
Kyle Payne also added two hits.
Brock Moffitt earned the win, going five innings and allowing four hits while striking out six.
Nick Irwin tossed an inning and two-thirds of scoreless work with three strikeouts, before
Brennan Patterson entered for the first time since the 2020 season to get the final out of the game.
Next Up
The Nighthawks and Yellowjackets will play two more tomorrow, with first pitch of game one set for noon. NNU will then wait and see what Western Oregon does next weekend before they know their seeding for the GNAC Championships, taking place on May 12-13 in Monmouth.
