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NAMPA, Idaho (Mar. 2) -- Junior Joel Johnson (Olympia) delivered the game-winning single in the top of the eighth inning, enabling the Central Washington University baseball team to complete a doubleheader sweep of host Northwest Nazarene University on Saturday at Vail Field. The Wildcats won the opener, 6-1, and then took the nightcap, 5-4, to win the series three games to one.

CWU is now 7-9 overall and 3-1 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference games, while NNU fell to 7-10 overall and 1-3 in the GNAC.

GAME ONE: CWU 6, Northwest Nazarene 1
Junior Stuart Fewel (Portland, Ore./Wilson HS) allowed just one run over eight innings of work, and five different Wildcat players had two hits each as CWU cruised to a 6-1 win in the opening game.

Fewel struck out just one and surrendered eight hits, but only gave up a third-inning run -- a sacrifice fly to Charlie Gorzo -- in improving to 2-1 on the season.

Offensively, senior Kyle Sani (Kennewick/Southridge HS) was one of those Wildcats with two hits, including a two-run home run in the ninth inning to give CWU some insurance. The visitors jumped to a 3-0 lead through 2 1/2 innings, starting with a two-run first inning that included a sacrifice fly by Sani and a RBI double by sophomore Kasey Bielec (Port Orchard/North Mason HS). Bielec then delivered a run-scoring single in the third, while junior Joe Castro (Union City, Calif./James Logan HS) also had a RBI hit in the CWU fourth inning.

Sani finished with three RBI, and senior Marc Garza (Othello) scored three runs for the Wildcats in the contest. Bielec, Garza, Castro, and freshman Kramer Ferrell (Ellensburg) all joined Sani with two hits each as CWU outhit NNU by a 12-10 count.

GAME TWO: CWU 5, Northwest Nazarene 4
Johnson's two-out RBI single scored Ferrell with the game-winning run, helping the Wildcats overcome a 3-0 first-inning deficit and make a winner out of senior relief pitcher Randy Button (Allyn/North Mason HS). Button pitched the final 7 1/3 innings and scattered six hits, allowing just one run while striking out three.

Eight of the nine starting hitters had at least one hit for CWU, with junior right fielder Ethan Sterkel (Ellensburg) going 2 for 4 with two runs batted in. One of those hits was a solo home run to start the fourth inning.

CWU fell behind in the first inning but rallied to tie the game with two runs in the fourth and one in the fifth. After NNU went ahead 4-3 in the bottom of the inning, the Wildcats tied the score once again in the top of the sixth on a two-out RBI double by senior Daniel Kathman (Roy/Eatonville HS). Northwest Nazarene left the bases loaded in the sixth, and CWU stranded a pair on base in the top of the seventh before pushing across the winning run in extra innings.

After playing its first 16 games away from home, including 14 true “away” games, CWU is scheduled to make its home debut on Tuesday (Mar. 5) against Whitworth University with a single game. Nine of the Wildcats' next 10 scheduled games are to be played in Ellensburg.