LEWISTON, Idaho – In the closing game of a four-game series, pinch hitter
A.J. Davis's tenth-inning line out to center scored
Riley Way from third for a 3-2 Lewis-Clark State win, helping the Warriors record a sweep of the College of Idaho Sunday. LC won the first game of the doubleheader 4-2. The Warriors, winners of five straight, upped their NAIA West record to 7-1, with the league doubleheader victories, and are now 17-5 overall. C of I dropped to 9-18 overall, and 2-9 in the league.
Davis's sac fly ended a nail-biter for LC, which trailed 2-0 entering the eighth inning. In fact,
Kasey Bailey's leadoff single in the first inning was the only Warrior hit entering the eighth. Coyote pitcher Hunter Boyd had allowed three Warrior base runners, the other two reaching on walks. But LC managed to knot the score at 2-2 in the eighth.
Kody Garvin knocked in
Joey Parente with a single, and came around to score after Bailey doubled, and the Coyote left fielder bobbled the ball.
Neither team scored in the ninth. Warrior reliever
Efrain Del Rio, who entered the game in the fifth, not only retired the side in the ninth, but struck out nine in his five inning stint. del Rio gave way to Joseph Riley in the tenth, who also retired the Coyotes in order.
Riley Way walked to start the bottom of the tenth, and made his way to third on Bailey's third hit of game, a single up the middle. An intentional walk to
Cory Voss loaded the bases to set up Davis game-ending sac fly. Riley (2-0) picked up the victory, but del Rio was the pitching star. He nine strikeouts, did not walk a batter, and allowed just four hits.
In the opener, LC scored single runs in four different innings, and rode the pitching of
Tyler Burch for the victory. Burch (3-1) went six innings, struck out seven, walked three and did not allow an earned run.
Justin Hammergren pitched two scoreless innings in middle relief, and
Gage Burland picked up his second save, pitching the final inning.
Bailey got the Warriors on the board in the second inning with an RBI double. College of Idaho tied it at 1-1 in the third inning, but Voss led off the fifth with a solo home run, his fifth of the season.
Max Draijer's RBI single in the sixth made it 3-1, and Parente added to the lead with a seventh-inning RBI double. The Coyotes pulled to within 4-2 in the ninth, but Burland closed the door, inducing a game-ending Coyote groundout with the tying run on base.
The Warriors now embark on their longest streak of games away from home in school history. They start a string of nineteen games on the road with a series against Oregon Tech Saturday.
