LACEY, Wash. – Northwest Nazarene baseball swept Saturday's doubleheader at Saint Martin's with victories of 11-2 and 5-0 to take the series three games to one over the Saints.
The Nighthawks improve to 30-11-1 on the season and 20-8 in GNAC play.
NNU has a two-game lead over Western Oregon in the GNAC standings with both teams having four games left to play. With at least three wins in the final series of the year against CWU next week, the Nighthawks would clinch the regular season championship and the top seed in the GNAC tournament regardless of what WOU does at MSUB. If the teams end up tied, they would share the regular season title but WOU would get the top seed in the tournament due to their 5-3 head-to-head record against the Nighthawks this season.
Game One
NNU got on the board first with a run in the second on a
Casey Wayne RBI groundout. SMU tied the game at one in the fourth, but the Nighthawks would break out for 10 runs over the next three innings.
In the fifth,
Gavin Brubaker and
Carter Walsh each had RBIs while
Bryan Rojas registered a two-RBI single. An inning later, it was Brubaker and Walsh again with RBIs before
Cole Calnon notched an RBI single and Rojas brought home another run with a bases-loaded walk.
NNU added two more in the seventh on an RBI sac bunt from
Jason Bell and an RBI single from Walsh to bring the lead to the final score of 11-2.
NNU had eight hits in the game but took advantage of six SMU errors. Walsh and Rojas each had three RBIs while
Duke Pahukoa had two hits.
Kailer Saunders was very effective in the start, earning the win after going 6 2/3 innings with two runs and six hits allowed.
Josh Bishopp went 1 1/3 scoreless frames, followed by
Adam Brooks pitching a scoreless ninth to preserve the victory.
Game Two
Game two was the
Blake Hammond show, as the sophomore threw six no-hit innings, facing just one batter above the minimum with a walk in the third inning. He added four strikeouts while earning his second victory of the season.
Josh Brown tossed a scoreless seventh to cap the game, allowing a leadoff single but erasing it with a double play on the next batter.
Calnon drove in the first two runs of the game in the third inning with a double. Brubaker brought home two more in the fourth with a single, and
Trevor Tishenkel drove home the final run with a sacrifice fly in the fifth.
Brubaker and Tishenkel each had two hits for NNU, with Brubaker improving his team-leading batting average to .354 on the year.
Next Up
The Nighthawks return home for the final series of the regular season, hosting Central Washington for four games on Thursday and Friday, May 2-3.
