Thursday, May 11, 2017

PORTLAND, Ore. – The 2017 GNAC Baseball Championships final will be a rematch of the last two years’ championship games after Northwest Nazarene beat Central Washington 7-3 on Thursday at Porter Park to set up a rematch with Western Oregon.

The Crusaders have been known all year for their power, but in pitcher-friendly Porter Park, they had to find another way to score. Northwest Nazarene put together 10 hits for seven runs over six innings, and the Crusaders’ pitching staff made the lead stick to send the defending champions right back into the title game.

Northwest Nazarene (25-28) will need to beat Western Oregon twice consecutively on Friday to claim the title with the first game beginning at noon. It is the third consecutive GNAC Championships final contested between the Wolves and Crusaders. Central Washington (30-22) wraps up its season with its third 30-win season in the last five years under the GNAC’s all-time winningest coach Desi Storey.

Northwest Nazarene put four runs on the board in the first two frames. Senior Andrew Helmstadter started the scoring with an RBI-single, and then Casey Sheehan made the Wildcats pay for pitching around Billy King with a two-RBI single in the second inning.

Dylan Suppan earned the win with 5.2 innings pitched with only two hits and one run allowed. It was Suppan’s second win of the year. Brady Baker picked up the save, his second of the day, throwing three innings of one-hit baseball. Baker struck out seven of the 12 batters he faced.