CALDWELL, Idaho – Luke White's grand-slam home run highlighted a 10-run third inning as the No. 9 Lewis-Clark State College baseball team set a number of season highs on offense in a 21-2 Cascade Collegiate Conference romp over the College of Idaho at Wolfe Field on Friday night.
 
The Warriors collected season highs in runs and hits (22) as every position player on the trip had an at-bat. College of Idaho used 10 pitchers in the game, which ties the LC program record for most pitchers used against it in a game. Only one of the 10 did not allow a Warrior hit.
 
Meanwhile, Tallon Thomason had another solid outing on the mound and picked up the win to improve to 4-0. He allowed one unearned run and three hits over five innings and struck out five. In all, three Warrior pitchers allowed just four hits and one earned run, while striking out 11.
 
"We played well today," said LC Coach Jake Taylor after the Warriors improved to 15-2 overall and 8-1 in conference with their sixth straight win.
 
The Warriors gave up an unearned run in the first and College of Idaho starter Dimick Wood retired six of the first seven batters he faced. LC State, however, was able to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 10-1 lead sending 14 batters to the plate and collecting seven hits, two walks and two hit batters.
 
Dillon Plew and Jack Johnson forced in the first two runs with bases-loaded walks. After Brock Ephan's RBI single, White cleared the bases with his grand slam on an 0-2 count from reliever Colby Dursky. A.J. Davis, back in the lineup after missing a few games, added a two-run double.
 
"This is how we hit down south early in the year," Taylor said of LC's road trip to California and Arizona to start the season where they averaged better than 10 runs and 13 hits per game. "We've seen a lot of it in practice and this team is capable of doing that. It's good that we got back on track today.
 
"I thought we used the whole field well, I thought we battled with two strikes early in the game. In the third inning, when it got away from them, we did some damage with two strikes and two outs, and we were able to square the ball with power to all fields. It was a good day."
 
The Warriors kept the pedal to the medal with two runs in the fourth, sparked by Ephan's first triple in a Warrior uniform. LC tacked on five more in the sixth for a 17-1 lead. Matt James and Aidan Nagle started the inning with back-to-back home runs.
 
The Warriors were then able to empty the bench and picked up three more runs in the seventh and the final run in the eighth.
 
White led the way going 2-for-3 with five RBI and two runs scored. Nagle added three hits and three RBI, while Zach Threlfall added three RBI despite not appearing until the sixth inning. Davis and Johnson drove in two each.
 
In all, LC had 13 players collect at least one hit.
 
Thomason retired 12 of the last 13 batters he faced. The lone run he gave up was when he struck out a batter, who wound up at first after a dropped third strike.
 
"Tallon has been sharp all year," Taylor said. "We wanted to get him to the fifth and get him the win and then put some guys in and get them some work."
 
Connor Breding, who had pitched only one inning this year, pitched the final three.
 
"It was nice to get a lot of guys in," Taylor said. "They work just as hard so it was good to see them get some playing time and at bats."
 
The two teams meet again Saturday in an 11 a.m. PT doubleheader and then wrap up the series on Sunday in a 10 a.m. PT single game.
 
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