LEWISTON, Idaho – Dickinson State University paid the Warriors back for Friday’s loss by handing the Lewis-Clark State College baseball team a 3-2 loss off of ninth-inning heroics on Saturday. The Warriors rolled over Dickinson 8-3 in the teams’ first meeting, but had their bats quieted in the rematch on day three of the four-team Guardian Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning Tournament.
Tied 2-2 in the bottom of the ninth, Dickinson State’s Cody Holland started the two-out game-winning rally when he doubled down the left field line. Brandon Loveridge then came into the game as a pinch hitter, and in one at-bat become one of the headlines of the game. Loveridge lined a single to left to plate Holland and snap LCSC’s five-game winning streak.
The loss brings LCSC to 5-2 on the season, while Dickinson State, an NAIA school out of Dickinson, North Dakota, improves to 2-1.
The loss brings LCSC to 5-2 on the season, while Dickinson State, an NAIA school out of Dickinson, North Dakota, improves to 2-1.
With one day left in the tournament, so far LCSC has a tournament mark of 2-1, while Dickinson is at 2-1, and Saint Martin’s is 2-0. Northwest Nazarene, the only team that will not play on Sunday, went 0-4, and lost all of its games in the ninth inning. Sunday will feature an 11 a.m. game between Saint Martin’s and Dickinson State, and a 1:30 game between LCSC and Saint Martin’s.
Lewis-Clark State started the game on Saturday out on the right foot as Kawika Emsley-Pai hit a double and came around to score a run in the first inning to make the game 1-0. However, LCSC only mustered three more hits in the game to finish with a season low. Emsley-Pai finished with two of LCSC’s four hits.
In the fourth inning the Blue Hawks grouped three hits together and took advantage of a Warrior fielding error to score their first two runs. The inning was highlighted by a one-run double to right center by Efrain Ruiz.
In the seventh the Warriors tied it up a 2-2 off of a pinch-hit home run by Sean Halton. A senior, Halton now has two home runs on the season.
The Warriors’ bats were muted by three Blue Hawk arms. Ryan Saunders started the game and surrendered one run in 2.1 innings, Tucker Slagle pitched the middle 4.2 innings and gave up three hits and the home run to Halton, and Tony Isbell, Dickinson’s starting DH, shut the Warriors down in the eighth and ninth as he struck out two and didn’t give up a hit. Isbell earned the win.
Despite the loss, LCSC also had fairly strong pitching performances and finished with 10 strikeouts. Tom Peale cruised through the first three innings without giving up a hit and by striking out five. Colby Hawk pitched the following three innings striking out four, but allowing four hits and one earned run, and Henry Buenrostro pitched fine up until two outs in the ninth when he gave up back-to-back hits that tabbed him with the loss.
Isbell was the only Blue Hawk to finish with multiple hits as he had two of Dickinson’s six hits.
