Tuesday, April 2, 2013

NAMPA, Idaho - Northwest Nazarene continued its recent surge Tuesday sweeping a non-conference baseball doubleheader from Cal State Dominguez Hills by 14-4 and 4-2 scores at Vail Field.

The Crusaders (17-16), who opened the season winning five of their first six games, have won nine of their last 10 games to move above the .500 level for the first time since Feb. 21 when they were 6-5 after defeating Chico State 6-5.

NNU, which travels to Ellensburg next Monday to begin for a four-game series with Central Washington, banged out 15 hits in Tuesday's first game victory.

Shortstop Jon Matos had three hits and five RBI and left fielder Greg Hata, had three hits, scored four runs and drove in four.

Both players homered.  Matos had a grand slam to key a seven-run fifth inning.  Hata went deep twice.  He had a solo shot in the second and a three-run blast in the eighth.

Skyler Souza pitched the final 4 2/3 innings, allowing four hits and two runs to record his second victory against no losses.

In Tuesday's second game, Aaron Vaughan (4-3) tossed a six-hitter to beat the California school.  He walked one and fanned six.  Vaughan was working on a four-hit shutout before giving up two runs in the seventh.

Second baseman Fernando Robles staked NNU to a 3-0 lead in the first inning with a two-run single.

Western Oregon Begins Four-Game Series at Billings Saturday

Western Oregon (17-13, 12-4), which leads Central Washington (17-13, 11-5) by one game in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference baseball race, travels to Billings Saturday for a four-game series with Montana State Billings.

The Yellowjackets (12-19, 8-8) are currently tied with Northwest Nazarene (17-16, 8-8) for third place in the conference standings.  The top three teams in the conference will eventually qualify for next month's conference tournament which will be hosted by the regular-season champion.