Friday, May 20, 2022

PORTLAND, Ore. – Not even eight home runs could prevent Northwest Nazarene’s season from coming to an end on Friday with back-to-back losses at the hands of regional top seed and national No. 4 Point Loma, with the Sea Lions besting NNU 7-4 in the first game and 21-5 in the second game of NCAA West Regional action from San Diego, California.

Point Loma will advance to the NCAA super regional round against either Azusa Pacific or Cal State Monterey Bay. Northwest Nazarene will finish its season at 31-23 with a GNAC regular season co-championship and a 1-2 NCAA West Regional record.

The Nighthawks were simply outgunned against the Sea Lions, who improved to 46-7 with the two victories and made it six wins in as many tries against NNU this season. With ace Haden Keller taking the mound for the first time since his 13-strikeout performance at the GNAC Championships, Point Loma provided an unfortunate signal of things to come when third baseman Otto Kemp homered on the second pitch of the game.

Keller dealt with traffic but did well to limit the damage, allowing single runs in the third and fourth and two runs in the fifth inning. Keller finished the afternoon with five innings pitched, giving up five runs on six hits with three walks and five strikeouts.

Northwest Nazarene had no trouble sending balls over the fence, but were unable to put runners on base before they did so. The Nighthawks’ four runs in the opening game came via four solo home runs from Alex Salsman in the fourth, Parker Price and Keller in the fifth and Ryan Dearing in the seventh. Those four hits alone, however, accounted for half of NNU’s baserunners in the game, and the Nighthawks never threatened a scoring opportunity without the use of the longball.

With a second game looming, NNU needed the bullpen to eat some innings and Shane Martin answered the call. The junior fired 2.2 innings of relief, giving up four hits and two runs, one earned, and striking out five including the first four outs he recorded.

The unearned run scored off Martin pushed the score to the final margin of 7-4. Keller shined in the loss, recording three hits including his home run, while Grant Kerry and Price had two hits apiece.

Although the Nighthawks had stayed within striking distance of Point Loma up to this point, it turned out the Sea Lions had another gear for the second game that NNU could not match.

The Sea Lions jumped on starter Spencer Schwehr, who lasted only an inning-plus and allowed seven runs, six earned, on four hits and two walks while giving up three home runs. Point Loma would slug six home runs before making nine outs, opening up a 14-2 lead after three innings of play.

The Nighthawks hit four home runs for the second consecutive game, but it only netted a total of five runs. Kyle Payne hit a two-run shot in the top of the second inning before Salsman, Price and Kerry added solo blasts in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, respectively. Northwest Nazarene’s pitching staff held Point Loma scoreless over the middle three innings, thanks in large part to Blake McFadden, who threw 2.1 shutout innings, allowing just one hit while striking out two.

The roles reversed in the game’s final third, as Point Loma relievers held NNU hitless for the final three innings while the Sea Lions scored one in the seventh and six in the eighth to reach the final total.