NAMPA, Idaho – With their backs against the wall, Northwest Nazarene baseball delivered a 10-6 victory over Montana State Billings to stave off elimination in the 2025 NCAA DII West Regional and advance to the final game of the regional pod on Saturday.
NNU will now play the winner of game four between 4-seed Point Loma and 5-seed MSUB at 6:00 p.m. Saturday night with a bid in Super Regionals on the line. With all three teams going 1-1 through the first three games, as the top seed in the region the Nighthawks automatically advance to the fifth and final game.
After falling to Point Loma 20-6 in their opener on Thursday, NNU knew they had to come out strong on Friday to avoid going 0-2 in the NCAA postseason and having their season end before they planned. The Nighthawks did just that, jumping out to a three-run lead in the top of the first inning on a
Kaleb Karpstein RBI double,
Cris Enriquez RBI groundout, and an RBI double from
Casey Wayne.
NNU then added two more in the third, with Karpstein scoring on an error and
Gavin Brubaker bringing home a run with an infield single. The Nighthawks then broke things open in the fourth, as
Carter Walsh and
Nin Burns II led off the frame with back-to-back homers and Enriquez added a sacrifice fly to make it 8-1. Burns' homer was his team-leading 13
th of the season.
Ernesto Lugo-Canchola got the start on the mound for the Nighthawks, just one week after he shut down these same Yellowjackets with a complete game shutout in the GNAC tournament. He was impressive again, going five strong innings and allowing two runs on just three hits while striking out three. This is the 11
th time this season that the senior went at least five innings and allowed two or less runs as he improved to 11-0 on the year.
After the first two MSUB batters reached in the bottom of the sixth,
Joseph Ihli entered to relieve Lugo-Canchola, who left to a standing ovation from the Nighthawks crowd. Ihli got out of the jam, retiring the next three Yellowjackets to strand runners on second and third.
NNU added two more runs in the top of the eighth to make it 10-2, coming from a
Bryan Rojas sacrifice fly to bring home Walsh and an infield single in the hole between shortstop and third from Enriquez that scored Burns.
Ihli worked hitless and scoreless seventh and eighth innings as well and was sent back out in the bottom of the ninth. MSUB was able to put together a few singles, and after an error and a home run the Yellowjackets scored four runs to cut the deficit to 10-6.
Jakob Rochelle relieved Ihli on the mound and was able to then get the final out on a fly ball to Burns in right field.
Burns was 3-4 on the day with his home run, while Walsh, Rojas, Karpstein, and Brubaker each had two hits and an RBI. Enriquez also tallied up three RBIs.
The game was the 11
th matchup between NNU and MSUB this season. The pair of GNAC squads split the regular season series 4-4 with each winning two at home and two on the road, but the Nighthawks have now won all three postseason matchups with two at the GNAC tournament to go with today's victory.
Of note, head coach
Joe Schaefer picked up his 200
th win at the helm of the Nighthawks. He now has an NNU record of 200-122-1 in seven seasons and career mark of 540-349-2 in 18 total seasons as a collegiate head coach.
