NAMPA, Idaho — It hasn't been ideal for the Northwest Nazarene Baseball team to start their spring season. The Nighthawks could only grab one win in their first series of the year against Point Loma, who were the Division II National Championship runner-ups last year. The team then traveled to Hawaii to take on the University of Hawaii at Hilo and got swept which put them at 1-7 in their first eight games.
After losing the first game of their first home series, the team knew they had to approach games differently.
“I think today we had a better mindset," Said Brock Moffitt, who pitched four innings Friday. "We came in expecting to win rather than coming in and being okay with losing by two runs or just playing a close game but losing.”
In four innings pitched, Moffit saw 14 batters and struck out nine of them, allowing only one earned run. His production was key in the fourth inning when with two runners on the plate and zero outs, Moffitt found a way to retire the side without giving up a score.
After the last out of the fourth, Moffitt walked to the dugout yelling to hype up his team.
“We just been playing a little timid almost," Moffit said. "That was my goal today was to light a fire under them and I was just yelling ' you gotta compete. Let’s go.’”
The words resonated with the rest of the team as the next four pitchers who made appearances allowed only one run in the last five frames.
NNU was productive at the plate as well, getting six hits and batting in five runners. Their best inning came in the third when the Nighthawks broke the 1-1 tie when Kyle Payne hit a two-run single and Drew Deal hitting an RBI double.
The season is not turned around yet. Even with Friday's win, and a win in Saturday's first game of the doubleheader, the Nighthawks are still only 3-8. But, head coach Joe Schaefer says if the team can build off the win, they can reach their potential.
“We’re not there yet," Schaefer said. "We took a step in the right direction today. But I think by the time conference play rolls around and when it’s all said and done, I expect to be there."
