MONMOUTH, Ore. – Northwest Nazarene baseball opened their GNAC Championship defense with a 2-0 shutout victory over Montana State Billings on Friday morning.
Haden Keller dazzled on the mound for the Nighthawks, going eight innings and allowing just one hit while striking out 13.
With the win, as the top seed NNU has now guaranteed that they will play for the title tomorrow. The Nighthawks will now face Western Oregon at 12:30 p.m. Pacific today in the final game of the round robin. If NNU wins, WOU is out and the Nighthawks would just need to beat MSUB once tomorrow for the crown. If WOU wins, the Yellowjackets and Wolves will play the first game tomorrow, with the winner facing the Nighthawks for the championship.
NNU got on the board right away in the bottom of the first, with Keller starting a two-out rally from the plate. He singled to center and advanced to second on a
Duke Pahukoa walk, before
Alex Salsman came up clutch with a single to left to score Keller.
One more came across in the sixth for the Nighthawks, as
Rumble Reyes doubled with one out and then came in to score on a two-out double from
Ryan Dearing.
Keller was dealing in all eight innings of his outing, striking out the side in the first and third innings and only allowed baserunners to reach second base twice. He retired 10 of the last 11 batters he faced.
Max Holtzclaw entered in the ninth and worked around a two-out single to retire the side for his 12
th save of the season.
Reyes led the offense with two of the Nighthawks seven hits.
