TURLOCK, Calif. – Northwest Nazarene baseball battled Stanislaus State to a rare occurrence on Saturday to wrap up their California trip, finishing the game in a 12-12 tie after eight innings.
The game was called at that point due to NNU having to leave to catch their flight back to Idaho.
The Nighthawks move to 3-1-1 in the early season.
Stanislaus got on the board early in the bottom of the first with five runs but just two of them earned due to a pair of Nighthawks errors. The Warriors would add one more in the bottom of the third to take a 6-0 lead.
NNU's offense finally got going in the top of the fourth, tallying four runs.
Manny Casillas led off with a single and came around to score on an error for the first run, and
Quentin Ayers drove in the other three with a bases-clearing double down the left-field line with two outs.
Stanislaus responded in the bottom of the frame, tallying two runs to bring their lead back to four at 8-4. They then added one more in the bottom of the sixth to go up by five.
The comeback continued in the top of the seventh for NNU with a big two-out rally. The Nighthawks loaded the bases before notching three straight run-scoring hits: a two-RBI single from
Duke Pahukoa, an RBI single from
Trevor Tishenkel, and a two-RBI single from
Kaleb Karpstein to even the score at nine apiece.
The runs kept coming for both teams, with Stanislaus taking the lead back in the bottom of the seventh at 10-9 before the Nighthawks scored three in the top of the eighth to go up 12-10. NNU's runs came from an RBI double off the bat of
Casey Wayne and a two-run homer from Pahukoa.
However, the Warriors would score two in the bottom of the inning to tie the game at 12 again before it was called for NNU to leave for the airport.
Kailer Saunders went 3-4 with a run scored, while Pahukoa and
Cole Calnon each had two hits. Pahukoa added four RBIs to his early season total.
Josh Brown started for the Nighthawks, allowing three earned runs on five hits over three innings of work.
Josh Meekins, Adams Brooks,
Josh Bishopp,
Kailer Saunders, and
Wade Duncan pitched in relief, with Brooks and Saunders tossing scoreless innings.
Next Up
NNU returns to Idaho for the next round of the Canyon County rivalry the upcoming week, visiting College of Idaho for single games on Thursday and Friday before hosting the Yotes for a game on Saturday.
