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ELLENSBURG (Apr. 8) -- Senior Kyle Sani (Kennewick/Southridge HS) homered in both games of Monday's doubleheader, but the Central Washington University baseball team walked away with just a split against visiting Northwest Nazarene University as the Wildcats took the opener, 13-1, before falling 3-2 in the nightcap.

The Wildcats remain in second place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings with a 12-6 league record (18-14 overall). Northwest Nazarene is now 18-17 overall and 9-9 in the GNAC.

GAME ONE: CWU 13, Northwest Nazarene 1
Eleven runs in the middle three innings turned a 2-0 pitcher's duel into a 13-1 blowout victory for the Wildcats.

CWU scored twice in the first inning on a single by senior Marc Garza (Othello) and a sacrifice fly by sophomore Kasey Bielec (Port Orchard/North Mason HS).

Juniors Joel Johnson (Olympia) and Joe Castro (Union City, Calif./James Logan HS) had run-scoring doubles in the fourth inning for CWU, with Castro's hit driving in two runs.

Back-to-back solo home runs by Sani and Bielec got the scoring started in the four-run fifth inning for the Wildcats, with senior Justin Peterson (Tacoma/Life Christian Academy) cleaning up with a two-run single later in the frame.

Freshman Kramer Ferrell (Ellensburg) then helped continue the Wildcats' scoring spree in the sixth, delivering a two-run triple and then scoring on a wild pitch. The final run of the inning (and game by CWU) scored on a two-out error.

Junior left-hander Joe Arlt (Spokane/Central Valley HS) picked up the victory in his first start -- and just his second overall appearance of the year. He threw five scoreless innings and allowed four hits, striking out seven and walking five. Three relievers combined to allow just three hits over the final four innings.

CWU finished with a 15-7 edge in hits, led by Castro (3 for 5) and Ferrell (3 for 4) with three apiece. That duo, plus Bielec and Peterson, all had two RBI in the contest, and Ferrell scored a team-best three runs.

Skyler Souza led NNU with three hits in five at-bats.

GAME TWO: Northwest Nazarene 3, CWU 2
Sam Cook's two-run home run in the top of the fifth inning gave the visiting Crusaders a 3-2 lead, and NNU held on to win by that same score in the seven-inning nightcap.

Each team scored in the first inning, with Northwest Nazarene scoring on a RBI single by Souza. The Wildcats countered in the bottom of the inning with two runs, as Castro led off with a single up the middle and scored two batters later on a two-run home run by Sani -- his ninth of the season.

Neither team mustered much offensively until the fifth, when Kaleb DeHaas reached on a one-out single for the visiting Crusaders. Cook then blasted a two-run home run over the right field fence to give freshman pitcher Nick Bland a one-run lead that held up for the duration.

CWU stranded two base runners in the bottom of the fifth, and got a pinch-hit single from junior Ethan Sterkel (Ellensburg) with one out in the seventh inning, but a fielder's choice and a strikeout left the tying run on first base as the game ended.

Senior Tyler Roberts (Kennewick/Southridge HS) went the distance on the mound for the Wildcats, again suffering the hard-luck loss to fall to 2-4 on the season. The right-hander allowed just five hits while striking out four, and his ERA sits at a team-best 3.00 in 45 innings of work this season.

Castro (2 for 3) was the lone CWU player with more than one hit as the Wildcats finished with just six safeties against Bland (2-2), who struck out six.

The two teams complete their four-game series on Tuesday (Apr. 9) with a noon doubleheader.