GNAC Baseball: Wolves, Crusaders Split Again

Western Oregon and NNU trade blowout baseball wins.

Salem-News.com SPORTS

MONMOUTH - Northwest Nazarene erupted for seven runs in the top of the seventh inning to pull away for a 9-2 baseball victory over Western Oregon, earning a split of a Great Northwest Athletic Conference doubleheader on Saturday at the WOU Baseball Field.

The Wolves won the first contest 9-4.

Western Oregon is now 11-15 on the season and 2-2 in GNAC play.

Northwest Nazarene, who has now won eight of its last 10 games, improved to 16-15 on the year and to 5-3 in conference play.

NNU’s Harold Schultz belted a pinch-hit two-run double in that fateful seventh inning in game two.

The Crusaders had just four hits in the inning, but also took advantage of a balk, two walks, a catcher’s interference and a wild pitch to add to the onslaught.

Just one-half inning previous, WOU pinch hitter Pat Kelly laced a double to begin the inning and later scored on Kevin Corrigan’s sacrifice fly to tie the game at 2-2.

Crusader pitcher Dan Baerlocher got the win in a solid outing, allowing five hits in 6.1 innings of work and he allowed just one earned run.

Offensively, Nick Ray had two hits (including a triple) and a pair of RBI and Tully Gallagher went 2-for-3 to lead the Crusaders.

Bryan Stone had two hits to lead the Wolves.

In game one, Ben Shivers came out of the bullpen to throw six strong innings and earn the win. He gave up just two hits, no runs, walked one and fanned three.

Earlier, both teams had three-run third innings.

Zack Aaukhas hit a three-run homer, his sixth of the year, to stake the Crusaders to a 4-1 lead.

But the Wolves came back in the bottom half of the inning with a trio of runs as well, thanks to a two-run jack by Paul Fisher and an RBI-single by Brent Mertens.

WOU then blew the game open in the fifth inning with four runs. The Wolves had four hits in the inning, including an RBI-double by Randy Summers.

Meanwhile, Shivers went four innings before giving up his first hit, and didn’t allow another until the ninth inning.

Offensively, Coubi Jiles went 3-for-4 for WOU with an RBI, while Fisher, Summers and Corrigan had two hits each. Aaukhas and Cole Smith had a pair of hits each for NNU.

Adding comments to these stories has been disabled. View the current sports stories Salem-News Sports