MONMOUTH, Ore. – The Western Oregon baseball team claimed the 2017 Great Northwest Athletic Conference regular-season title winning the second game of Thursday's league doubleheader against Northwest Nazarene in the highly-anticipated home debut at the WOU Baseball Field. The Crusaders used a big two-out rally to win the series opener, 5-2, before the Wolves blasted 11 hits in an 11-3 victory.
 
The twinbill split moved Western Oregon to 27-14 overall and 26-11 in GNAC play. Northwest Nazarene is now 22-26 overall and 20-18 in conference action.
 
With two games left in the regular season, Western Oregon has secured, at the very least, an advantage by percentage points for the GNAC title over second-place Central Washington, assuming the Wildcats sweep their weekend series at Montana State Billings beginning Friday. It is the 14^th regular season championship for the Wolves in the last 16 years and the first since 2015.
 
GAME ONE – Northwest Nazarene 5, Western Oregon 2
 
All of the scoring in Thursday's series opener came in the sixth inning. Northwest Nazarene rattled off five hits with two outs, highlighted by a three-run home run by Brett Nielsen, to take a 5-0 lead that would be enough for an eventual 5-2 win.
 
Western Oregon's Connor McCord retired the first nine batters he faced and allowed one hit over his first five frames.
 
The Crusaders' rally in the bottom of the sixth sparked with a pair of two-out hits. After a bunt attempt was missed on a squeeze play, WOU catcher Justin Wakem had a chance to nab lead runner Colton McCluskie back at third, but his toss was a little late. The bags loaded with a hit batter. Drew Helmstadter lined a two-run single for the initial lead. Two pitches later, Nielsen lifted a high fly ball toward the wall in center. Forrest Garcia attempted a jumping grab, but the ball was out of reach for a home run.
 
Western Oregon tried to match the NNU effort with a two-out rally in the bottom half of the same frame. Jay Leverett earned a walk in a tough at-bat against NNU starting pitcher Ross Clevenger. Nyles Nygaard lined a triple off the end of his bat to right field to bring in Leverett. During the next at-bat, Nygaard scored on a Clevenger wild pitch making it a 5-2 game.
 
NNU relief pitching held off a bases-loaded predicament for the Wolves in the 7^th and kept the tying run off the basepaths in the eighth inning to secure the win.
 
McCord was tagged with the loss, evening his season record at 2-2, in game one despite pitching a complete game and allowing two hits over the eight NNU non-scoring frames. Meanwhile, Clevenger reaped the rewards of the Crusaders' big inning for his fifth win of the year while Brady Baker went two innings for his sixth save.
 
GAME TWO – Western Oregon 11, Northwest Nazarene 3
 
In game two, the Wolves used a three-inning offensive outburst to erase an early NNU lead and coast to an 11-3 victory.
 
Trailing by a run and already having two outs on the board in the bottom of the third inning, McCord beat out a bouncing ball up the middle for a RBI single to score Garrett Anderson, who reached on an error, and advanced to second on a throwing error into the WOU dugout.  Jacob Martinez followed with a hit to center on a 0-2 count to give the Wolves a 2-1 lead. A Nygaard single and four-pitch walk issued to Torreahno Sweet packed the bags. Tony Fonzo took a pitch off his back for a RBI and Boog Leach finished the rally with a two-run single through the right side.
 
The Wolves added two runs in response to a Northwest Nazarene tally in the fourth inning with a two-run single by McCord.
 
A four-run bottom of the fifth pushed the lead to 11-2. Sweet's leadoff walk paired with three wild pitches brought in the first run of the frame. The game was halted for 30 minutes when the southern edge of a thunderstorm cell brought rumbling into Monmouth. After the delay, the offensive rumblings continued against the NNU bullpen. The bases loaded after a sacrifice bunt from Anderson was misplayed in front of the mound. Leverett brought in a run beating out a double play ball to shortstop. The final two runs plated on two-out singles from McCord to left field and Martinez up the middle.
 
The final run was a solo home run blasted by Billy King of NNU, his 12^th of the year.
 
Jake Simmons allowed two runs on four hits through his four innings for the win, before Jacob Fricke slammed the door with three innings of three-hit relief. Simmons notched his second win of the year without a loss and Fricke got his second save.
 
McCord and Martinez in the three and four spots in the lineup combined for a 5 of 8 performance at the plate with six RBI.
 
UP NEXT
 
The Wolves close out the regular season with another home GNAC doubleheader against Northwest Nazarene at 12 p.m. Prior to the games, the Wolves will honor its senior class with a ceremony at 11:35 a.m.