NAMPA, Idaho – Northwest Nazarene baseball is headed back to the NCAA DII College World Series. For the second time in school history and first since the 2021 season, the Nighthawks are West Region Champions after taking down Cal State Monterey Bay in the Super Regional with a 14-0 win on Thursday and a 7-3 victory on Friday.
The College World Series is set to take place at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina from May 30-June 7. More info on who and when the Nighthawks will be playing will be posted to nnusports.com as soon as it becomes available.
With the victory, NNU's incredible season continues as they improve to 44-14 on the year.
The Nighthawks struck first in the top of the first inning, with
Bryan Rojas drilling a one-out double and coming in to score on a two-out single up the middle from
Casey Wayne.
Cole Calnon started for NNU and retired the first six Monterey Bay hitters in order. In the bottom of the third, though, the first two Otters reached on singles to put two on with no outs. Calnon retired the next two, but CSUMB got a two-out RBI single from Jacob Dressler to tie the game at 1-1.
After a scoreless fourth, the Nighthawks came out with back-to-back singles from
Carter Walsh and
Jake Mestas to open the fifth. A sac bunt from
Jason Bell moved the runners over, and Rojas came through in the clutch with a two-out single through the right side to score both and put NNU back up 3-1.
Calnon ran into a bit of trouble in the bottom of the sixth, walking back-to-back Otters with two outs.
Joseph Ihli entered in relief, and proceeded to strike out the next hitter to end the threat. In the seventh, Ihli allowed a leadoff single but after a flyout to left, he got a ground ball right to Brubaker at short for the 6-4-3 double play.
The Otters produced another threat in the eighth with a one-out double, but
Jonathan Zayas then replaced Ihli on the mound for the Nighthawks and struck out CCAA Player of the Year KW Quilici before getting the final out on a groundout to second.
NNU then added some insurance in the top of the ninth, with
Cole Calnon registering an RBI single,
Gavin Brubaker a two-RBI triple, and
Carter Walsh an RBI single to push the lead to 7-1.
Wade Duncan entered to finish the game for the Nighthawks, and despite two runs on two hits from CSUMB, he ended the game with a strikeout to send NNU to the College World Series.
Calnon earned the win on the mound, his 11
th of the season as he improves to a perfect 11-0. NNU also improves to 14-0 this year when the senior is the starting pitcher. His final line was 5.2 innings, allowing one run on five hits while striking out two.
Bryan Rojas had three more hits in Friday's game, upping his NCAA postseason total to 11 across NNU's five contests.
Carter Walsh also had three hits, while
Kaleb Karpstein and Calnon also had two.
