CARY, N.C. – Just another day at the office for
Cole Calnon. The Northwest Nazarene senior delivered a pitching performance for the ages as NNU opened their 2025 DII Baseball Championships play with a 4-1 victory over four-seed UT Tyler on Saturday afternoon.
Behind the stellar work on the mound by Calnon and a flawless defensive display by all nine Nighthawks on the field, the five-seed NNU now advance into the winner's bracket and will take on the top-seeded and defending champs Tampa Spartans, who rolled past eight-seed Felician 20-3 on Saturday night. The matchup will be on Monday, June 2 at 6:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 p.m. MT at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary.
With their second victory at the DII Baseball Championships in program history, NNU improves to 45-14 on the year. This is the first time that the Nighthawks have won their opener and reached the winner's bracket.
Calnon was incredible, tossing his Division II leading ninth complete game of the season and allowing just the one run on eight hits to improve to 12-0 on the year. The Nighthawks also improved to 15-0 this season when the senior starts on the mound. In three NCAA tournament starts this year, he has now allowed just four runs across 21.1 innings of work.
UT Tyler came into the championships as one of the best offenses in the country, ranking sixth nationally in batting average, fifth in on-base percentage, and seventh in total runs. Today, however, Calnon and the Nighthawks held the Patriots to less than two runs for only the second time in their 60 games.
NNU struck early in the game, with
Nin Burns II getting the offense started with a leadoff single and eventually coming in to score on an RBI single from
Cris Enriquez.
Calnon was already brilliant early, retiring the side in order in the first before working around a leadoff double in the second to keep the Patriots off the board. After a one-out single in the third, he induced a 6-4-3 double play to end the frame.
Enriquez then came up again to lead off the top of the fourth, and after seeing seven pitches in the at-bat he launched the eighth into the trees beyond the wall in deep right-center field.
UT Tyler threatened in the bottom of the fourth, loading the bases on three straight singles with two outs. A highlight reel play would end the inning, however, as
Kaleb Karpstein was able to corral a foul ball by the visiting dugout just before it hit the turf after it glanced off
Jason Bell's glove. Another double play would end the fifth inning and keep the Nighthawks ahead at 2-0.
The bottom of NNU's order produced some insurance in the sixth, when
Gavin Brubaker walked with one out, stole second and third, and came in to score on an RBI triple from
Jake Mestas that one-hopped the wall in deep left-center. NNU would also add a fourth run in the seventh when Burns scored on a groundout by Karpstein.
Meanwhile, Calnon continued to stymie Patriot hitters, retiring the side in order in both the sixth and seventh frames. Three of the six outs were grounders to shortstop, including one that took Brubaker far to his right for an incredible jump throw across his body to nail the runner by a step.
NNU then turned their third double play of the day in the eighth to get the first two outs, and a pop-up to second base took the game into the ninth.
UT Tyler finally got to Calnon momentarily in the bottom of the ninth, as All-American Justin Williams hit a solo homer to left to cut the lead to 4-1.
Bryan Rojas then made a great play on a grounder to third for the first out, Calnon recorded his first strikeout of the game to get the second, and after a hit batter, the final out was secured on a sliding grab in foul territory by Karpstein.
Enriquez finished with two hits and two RBIs, while Burns, Rojas, and Bell all also registered a pair of hits. NNU out-hit UT Tyler 10-8 in the contest that was just a brief two hours and eight minutes from start-to-finish.
