LACEY, Wash. – Northwest Nazarene baseball opened the GNAC tournament with an 8-5 victory over Central Washington.
The Nighthawks are now 24-27 overall and 1-0 in the GNAC Championship.
The Nighthawks offense exploded for five runs in the bottom of the first inning to kick off the scoring in the GNAC Championships. NNU brought 10 men to the plate in the inning and had seven hits.
Shane Jamison,
Duke Pahukoa, and
Kyle Payne each had RBI singles.
Tyler Best had the only extra base hit of the inning, bringing two runs in to score on a double.
Jonathan Zayas started on the bump for the Nighthawks. He threw a scoreless first two innings, facing the minimum in the second to keep the momentum with NNU after their big inning.
The Wildcats scored their first run of the tournament in the top of the third inning, then brought the score to 5-2 with one run in the top of the fifth inning.
Quentin Ayers started the Nighthawks offense back up in the bottom of the fifth inning when he hit a double down the left field line that scored Payne from first base. Best then drove in Ayers for his third RBI of the game, bringing the score to 7-2.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Best got his fourth RBI of the game, scoring Payne from third base on a single to right field.
Zayas exited the game after seven complete innings of work. He allowed two runs on three hits while striking out five Wildcats.
Blake Hammond entered to pitch in the eighth inning, but CWU got to him for three earned runs.
Shane Martin relieved Hammond and threw the final 2.0 innings of the game, bringing the game to the 8-5 final.
On Deck
The Nighthawks have a short break while the Wildcats play the Wolves, then take on Western Oregon for their second game of the GNAC Championships later today.
