Lewis-Clark State takes down Gonzaga 8-3

05-12-08

SPOKANE – Kyle Greene had two hits and drove in three runs to help the Lewis-Clark State College baseball team defeat Gonzaga 8-3 on Monday night. 

Greene had a double and a home run to push his team-leading batting average to .462, which is tied for the third-best single-season average in Warrior history. Greene’s double was his 29th of the season, which ties LCSC’s single-season record. Chad Miltenberger also hit 29 doubles in the 1984 season. 

Greene hit his 17th home run, which ties him for 10th on LCSC’s single-season list, and he collected three RBI, which gives 83 for the season, which ranks seventh on LCSC’s all-time list. 

Greene, and strong pitching performances from Ryan Woods and Justin Mace, helped LCSC improve to 3-0 against NCAA Division I teams this season. LCSC is 2-0 against Gonzaga and 1-0 against the University of Washington. LCSC and UW play next Tuesday in Seattle in LCSC’s final regular season game. 

Woods tied his longest start of the season when he went six innings. He improved to 8-1 on the season and allowed five hits, one unearned run and three walks. He also struck out four.  Woods, who has allowed only one earned run in his last five outings, dropped his earned run average to 1.70 on the season. 

Mace went 2.2 innings and allowed one hit and struck out two. He leads the Warrior pitching staff with 21 appearances and also has a 1.67 ERA. The Warriors’ save leader also has not given up a run in his last eight appearances. 

Gonzaga jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first, but LCSC took the lead for good with two runs in the third on RBI doubles by Greene and Ikaika Lester. 

LCSC added two more in the fifth when Josh Ashenbrenner singled in a run, while a passed ball allowed another run to score. 

The Warriors made it 6-1 in the seventh when Bernard Pena hit a two-run home run, his second of the season. 

After Gonzaga scored twice in the seventh to make it 6-3, Greene blasted his two-run home run in the eighth for the final. 

LCSC, which struck out a season-high 10 times in the game, picked up three hits apiece from Ashenbrenner and Nic Benton, while Greene and Ward added two apiece. 

The Warriors now play host to Azusa Pacific in the best-of-3 West Coast Super Regionals. The first game is Wednesday at 6 p.m., and Game 2 will be Thursday, also a t 6 p.m. at LCSC’s Harris Field. The third game, if necessary, will be Saturday at 6 p.m.