CALDWELL, Idaho -- Kyle Greene drew a bases-loaded walk and Jesse Roehl followed with an RBI single to help the Lewis-Clark State College baseball team end a scoreless duel with Albertson College and claim a 2-0 victory in 11 innings in the championship game of the Region I Tournament at Simplot Stadium on Saturday.

 

With the win, the Warriors, 51-4, will now travel to Azusa, Calif., to take on Region II winner Azusa Pacific in the West Coast Super Regional. The best-of-three series begins on Wednesday night at 7:05 p.m. The second game is Thursday, and the if necessary game will be Friday, both also at 7:05 p.m.

 

LCSC and Azusa Pacific, 49-6, are the top two ranked teams in the NAIA. LCSC, the defending national champion, has been ranked No. 1 all season, while the Cougars have held down the No. 2 spot for most of the year.

 

Other than deciding supremacy, the three-game series means little because both teams are already assured berths into the 51st annual Avista NAIA World Series, which will be held May 25-June 1 at LCSC's Harris Field. The Warriors will go either as the West Coast champions if they defeat APU, or as the host team if they should lose. APU will either go as the West Coast champions or will receive one of the three at-large berths, which are awarded to the top-ranked teams that lose in the Super Regional round.

 

If LCSC wins the West Coast Super Regional, there will be three at-large berths available.

 

APU will be making its first Series appearance since 1984 when it lost to the Warriors in the championship game. That was the first of 14 national titles LCSC has won since then.

 

Saturday's contest belonged to the pitchers as the two teams combined for just 10 hits, all singles. The game marked the first time since at least 1974 where LCSC failed to score in the first 10 innings of a ballgame. The Warriors have been shut out 30 times in coach Ed Cheff's 31-year tenure, but none went longer than nine innings.

 

Albertson, which finishes the year at 31-17, certainly gave the Warriors all they could handle despite finishing 0-10 against LCSC this season. Starting pitcher Joey Zubizarreta pitched 10 innings, the longest outing by a Coyote pitcher in nearly a decade and allowed only four hits and one walk, while striking out five. He gave way to Jason Roach in the 11th, who allowed two hits and two walks, but was hurt by a costly error.

 

LCSC pitchers Brad Schwarzenbach and Brian Parker answered the call by combining on an four-hitter. The two retired 18 straight hitters between the fourth and 10th innings and allowed only two baserunners after the fourth inning. Schwarzenbach allowed three hits and two walks in his seven innings, and struck out five. Parker, who has emerged as LCSC's closer, pitched four innings of one-hit ball and struck out six.

 

Neither team mounted much of a scoring threat in the early innings.In the fifth Albertson had the first base runner reach third when Camron Hammon walked and then advanced to third with one out on an errant pickoff attempt by Schwarzenbach. But a ground out and a fly out ended the threat.

 

The Warriors best scoring opportunity came in the eighth inning when Kyle Melton bunted for a single with one out and went to second on a wild throw to first by Albertson catcher Dane McGrady, and advanced to third on a wild pitch. However, Zubizarreta got out of the jam by striking out pinch-hitter Ryan Wholey and getting Mark Thompson to ground out.

 

The Warriors managed to put runners on second and third with two outs in the 10th, but Zach Evangelho flew out to end the threat.

 

In the top of the 11th, Brent Wyatt walked, and after Beau Mills popped out, Paul Martin singled, and Jessie Mier reached on a fielding error by the Albertson shortstop on a potential double play ball. Ikaika Lester struck out for the second out, but Greene worked the count full before drawing a walk to bring in the first run. Roehl followed with an infield single to deep in the hole at shortstop to make it 2-0.

 

In the obttom of the 11th, Bryan Champ singled for Albertson's first hit since the fourth inning. After a line out, Parker (4-0) struck out the final two batters to preserve the win.

 

No player had more than one hit in the game as LCSC left 11 stranded on base, while Albertson had six.

 

Thompson stole his 36th base of the season, which is third on the single-season list. Mike Lester stole a program best 42 bases in 1975.