MONMOUTH, Ore. – Northwest Nazarene baseball came up short in the final game of the 2022 GNAC Championships, falling to Western Oregon 5-2.
After the loss, the Nighthawks (30-21) will now need to wait and see if their name will be called for an at-large bid to the NCAA West Regional during the selection show release on Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. MT on NCAA.com. NNU was ranked fourth in the latest regional rankings that were released by the NCAA on Wednesday, with the top six in Sunday's final rankings qualifying for the NCAA postseason.
After all three teams in the GNAC Championships went 1-1 on day one on Friday, with the top seed NNU advanced to Saturday's title game and Western Oregon had to beat Montana State Billings and the Nighthawks to claim the title. Playing on their home field, the Wolves took down MSUB 7-2 before defeating NNU for the crown and auto bid to regionals.
WOU (34-18) struck first in the title game, as Jacob Maiben led off the bottom of the first with a single and then came all the way around to score on Derek Maiben's single to center that got past the NNU center fielder for an error.
The Wolves came back for more in the second, tallying four runs on three hits and an error. The first three batters reached on two singles and a walk, and then a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch brought home the second run of the game. Two sacrifice flies and an RBI single scored three more runs, with two coming as unearned after a throwing error on the Nighthawks right fielder with one out.
Ryan Dearing picked up NNU's first hit of the game in the top of the third and advanced all the way around to third base, but was stranded there.
The Nighthawks would break through for a pair of runs in the fifth, starting with
Grant Kerry and
Rumble Reyes notching back-to-back singles to put runners on the corners with no outs.
Kyle Payne then earned an RBI with a fielder's choice and would eventually come around to score on an RBI single from
Tyler Best.
After NNU starter
Brock Moffitt was pulled with just 1.1 innings and five runs (two earned) allowed, the bullpen did their job to keep the Nighthawks in the game.
Nick Irwin and
Blake McFadden each went 2.2 scoreless innings in relief, allowing just one hit and tallying seven strikeouts between them.
Max Holtzclaw pitched the final 1.1 innings and retired all four batters he faced via strikeout.
Unfortunately, the Nighthawks were not able to get anything going offensively in the final innings, with just one batter reaching base in the last three frames.
As mentioned, NNU will now wait to see if their season will continue at the NCAA West Regional when the selections are announced on Sunday night.
