EDMOND - Northeastern State inched closer to a spot in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Tournament championship game Thursday.

Blaze Brothers delivered a clutch two-run double in the seventh inning to break a 4-4 tie and propelled the second-seeded RiverHawks to a 7-4 win over third-seeded Pittsburg State in the quarterfinals at Wendell Simmons Field in Edmond.

NSU, who improved to 37-14 overall, will face fifth-seeded Washburn (32-18) Friday at 11 a.m. The winner will play in Saturday's final at noon. The loser will play the Central Missouri/Pittsburg State winner at 7 p.m. Friday.

"I'm really proud of everybody because that was a hard fought game and well played by both teams," NSU head coach Jake Hendrick said.

"Washburn is very similar to Pitt State. They're highly competitive and they're playing great baseball right now."

Brothers' double came on a full-count pitch off Pittsburg State reliever Jordan Mendenhall and went down the left field line. Brothers later stole third base and scored the third run of the inning when he crossed home plate on a Brock Reller groundout.

"He was coming with fastballs the whole time and then he hung an offspeed pitch in the zone and it just looked really good to me," Brothers said. "I saw it really well and pulled the trigger on it."

"Blaze Brothers is a great player, he's a great athlete, and he has great instincts," Hendrick said. "He's just a baseball player. He hits the huge double, steals third base on his own…he wants to make plays and isn't afraid to fail."

NSU received five consecutive shutout innings from starting pitcher Korrdell Jiles, and relievers Cohen Bell and Jake Bigham after the Gorillas (31-20) went up 4-2 in the fourth inning on a RBI groundout by Austin Bonnel.

"I thought we were great on the mound," Hendrick said. "Jiles had to pitch through some stuff and wasn't real sharp early, and both Cohen and Jake played in the moment and were outstanding for us."

In a no decision, Jiles allowed four earned runs on six hits in 5.2 innings. The right-hander finished with four stikeouts and issued one walk. In middle relief, Bell, who picked up the win, didn't allow a run and gave up just one hit in 2.1 innings. The left-hander recorded a pair of strikeouts and walked one. Bigham earned his seventh save of the season, tossing a scoreless ninth. Bigham walked one and struck out two.

The RiverHawks got even at 4-4 in the home-half of the fourth on a Tucker Dunlap two-run homer to left after Matt Kaiser led off with a single up the middle. It was the ninth homer of the season for Dunlap, who finished with two hits to join Kaiser and Kademon Graff.

The Gorillas, who had two hits apiece from Brett Daley and Mason Hartman, scored the game's first three runs in the first two innings. In the first, Caleb Carr doubled to left center to bring home Hartman, and Jordan Maxson scored Carr on a sacrifice fly to center. Braeden Hinton singled home Daley in the second inning to make it 3-0.

The RiverHawks got their first two runs in the second on back-to-back two-out doubles from Lucas McCain and Graff to left field.