CARY, N.C. – All good things must come to an end. Northwest Nazarene had their best season in program history come to a close on Friday in the 2025 DII Baseball National Semifinals, falling to top seed and defending champs Tampa 6-5.
 
The Nighthawks finish the year with a record of 46-16, claiming the GNAC Regular Season Championship, GNAC Tournament Championship, and NCAA West Region Championship, and winning two games in Cary to advance farther than any NNU team at the DII Baseball Championships.
 
The 46 wins shattered the previous program record of 36 and are also a GNAC record. The squad is also the first in Northwest Nazarene athletics history to reach an NCAA National Semifinal, regardless of sport.
 
NNU's run in Cary was nothing short of exciting, coming out hot and riding incredible pitching and defense to a 4-1 win over four-seed UT Tyler and a 5-3 win over 1-seed Tampa to be in position to advance to the championship series. The Spartans showed their power in the next game with a 13-5 victory, setting up Friday's winner-take-all matchup.
 
After a scoreless first inning, the Nighthawks did what they have done so many times this season and created some chaos.  Casey Wayne walked with one out and advanced to third on a Gavin Brubaker double. Carter Walsh brought home Wayne with a sacrifice fly for the first run of the game, and then Brubaker stole third to put another run 90 feet away. The steal proved to be crucial, as after ball four was thrown to Jake Mestas, the Tampa catcher tried to backpick Brubaker off third and sailed the ball into left field to allow him to trot home with ease.
 
Meanwhile, just as he had done in the opener against UT Tyler, Cole Calnon dazzled on the mound. Tampa did not have a runner reach second base until the fourth inning, and their second runner to get that far didn't come until the seventh.
 
Just before that, though, the Nighthawks added on to their lead as freshman Jake Mestas blasted his first collegiate home run way over the wall in left-center. Brubaker had walked to lead off the inning, so two runs came across to put NNU up 4-0. More fireworks came in the top of the eighth, when Cris Enriquez belted his second homer in Cary to make it 5-0.
 
Tampa finally broke through in the bottom of the eighth, however, as Cole Russo hit a solo homer to straightaway center field to cut the lead to 5-1. Calnon got out of the rest of the inning without allowing another baserunner, but a single and a triple to lead off the bottom of the ninth cut the lead to 5-2 and ended Calnon's outing.
 
Wade Duncan entered in relief, and after having a couple of borderline pitches not go his way, walked the next hitter. He was relieved by Jonathan Zayas, who got the next batter to foul out to second base. Two outs away from the championship series, the Spartans then tied the game with a three-run homer and eventually scored the winning run on an error.
 
Calnon's final line was 8.0 innings, allowing three runs on eight hits while striking out four. In two starts in Cary, Calnon proved his worth as an All-American, allowing just four runs across 17 innings of work against two of the best offenses in all of Division II baseball.
 
Combined with fellow All-American Ernesto Lugo-Canchola, the duo allowed only six runs across three games and 23.1 innings in Cary.
 
The Nighthawks finish with a 2-2 record in Cary and one of the last three times standing in all of Division II baseball.