SAN DIEGO, CALIF. – Down 6-2 after the top of the fourth, Northwest Nazarene baseball rallied to score seven runs in their final three at-bats to take down Cal Poly Pomona 10-7 in their opener at the NCAA West Regional.
With the win, the fourth-seeded Nighthawks advance to Friday and will take on top seed Point Loma at 11:00 a.m. Pacific. Depending on the result of Thursday's second game, Point Loma could be facing elimination if they lose to fifth-seeded Pomona. If the Sea Lions defeat the Broncos, though, NNU and PLNU will play a best-of-three series to determine the regional winner.
Cal Poly Pomona got to NNU starter
Brock Moffitt early, scoring two in the first, one in the second, and two more in the third. The Nighthawks were able to get two of their own in the bottom of the second though, as
Colton Moore drilled an RBI double down the right field line and
Parker Price added a sacrifice fly.
Joseph Ihli came in to pitch in the fourth for NNU, and after a shaky start where he gave up a run in that inning, he went on to retire the side in order in the fifth, sixth, and seventh frames.
Down 6-2 going into the bottom of the fourth, NNU's bats had some work to do, and the rally was kick-started by senior center fielder
Ryan Dearing. Dearing came up with two outs in the inning and belted his first home run as a Nighthawk to cut it to 6-3.
In the sixth,
Alex Salsman and
Rumble Reyes led off the inning with back-to-back singles before
Grant Kerry drove in Salsman with a sacrifice fly. NNU cut the deficit to one before the inning was over, as
Tyler Best drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 6-5.
The CCAA Pitcher of the Year for Pomona, Will Rudy, was taken out of the game after the sixth and gave way to CPP's top reliever, Matt Orozco, who entered the game with a 1.93 ERA.
NNU would tee off on Orozco, though, with
Duke Pahukoa and
Alex Salsman launching back-to-back homers to start the inning. Pahukoa's tied the game at six before Salsman's bomb gave NNU its first lead of the game.
Before the frame was over, Dearing added his second RBI of the day with a hard-hit single to center, scoring Reyes to make it 8-6.
Blake McFadden came in to pitch the eighth for NNU. Pomona hit a leadoff homer in the inning to cut the deficit to one, but McFadden settled down to retire the side without any more damage. The Nighthawks then added a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the inning, with Kerry delivering a two-out, two-RBI double off the wall in left to make it 10-7.
McFadden came back out and struck out the first batter of the ninth before giving way to
Max Holtzclaw. Holtzclaw did his thing, striking out his two batters to close the game and give NNU the win.
The NNU staff totaled 11 strikeouts, with Moffitt getting four, Ihli three, and two apiece from McFadden and Holtzclaw.
NNU compiled 15 hits in the win, their highest total since registering 21 in a 17-4 win over Central Washington on April 8
th. Today's game was also the first time that NNU scored in double digits since that victory over the Wildcats.
Six Nighthawks had multiple hits, led by a 3-5 effort from Salsman that included the senior scoring three times. Price, Pahukoa, Reyes, Kerry, and Dearing all added two hits apiece.
With a 4-3 record during last year's NCAA Championships run, the Nighthawks now improve to 5-3 all-time in NCAA postseason action.
