Sunday, March 31, 2013

PORTLAND, Ore. – Northwest Nazarene overcame 6-2, 7-1, 6-2 and 8-0 deficits to sweep a four-game series from Saint Martin’s last weekend putting itself right back into the GNAC post-season baseball playoff picture and earning GNAC Team of the Week honors.

The sweep moved the Crusaders into a tie for third place with idle Montana State Billings in the conference standings at the midway point of the schedule. 

The two teams are tied with 8-8 conference records.  Three teams will qualify for the conference playoffs.

In the seventh inning of the four contests, NNU outscored the Saints 24-0.

On Friday trailing 6-2, the Crusaders scored five runs in the seventh and one in the eighth to earn an 8-7 victory in the nine-inning game of their doubleheader.  

In the seven-inning contest, they rallied from a 7-1 deficit, scoring seven runs in the bottom of the seventh winning the game 8-7 on a pinch-hit two-run home run by Tate Glasgow.

The Crusaders, who have won six straight to improve to 14-15, repeated their magic on Saturday.

In the nine-inning contest, NNU overcame a 6-2 deficit, scoring once in the sixth and five in the seventh.  A two-run double by Sam Cook snapped a 6-6 tie earning NNU an 8-6 victory.

The Crusaders pulled off their biggest comeback in Saturday’s second game.  Trailing 8-0, they began their comeback with two runs in the fifth before completing the sweep with another seven-run seventh inning to win 9-8.

Cook’s infield single plated Greg Hata with the winning run.

NNU scored 33 runs in the series and it was truly a team effort.  Seven different players – Cook, Hata, Jamie Mitchell, Kaleb DeHaas, Fernando Robles, Charlie Gorzo and Jon Matos – had four RBI each.

Mitchell and Logan Parker each had a team-high seven hits and Glasgow had three RBI though he batted only twice.

The sweep pulled NNU to within four games of first-place Western Oregon (12-4), which split a four-game series with second-place Central Washington (11-5) as the conference schedule reached the halfway point.

NNU hosts Cal State Dominguez for a four-game series this Monday and Tuesday before returning to conference action next Monday and Tuesday traveling to Ellensburg for a four-game series with the Wildcats.

MSUB hosts Western Oregon this Saturday and Sunday for a four-game series. Saint Martin's. meanwhile, is idle.