LEWISTON, Idaho – Held to only one run and four hits in the first six innings, the Lewis-Clark State College baseball team scored too little too late at Harris Field on Friday evening. The Warriors fell short of the University of British Columbia 6-4 in game one of a three game series.
British Columbia, ranked No. 24 in the NAIA, received six strong innings from its starter Mark Hardy, as Warrior hitters tied their season-high of seven strikeouts and also left 13 runners on base.
The loss snaps the Warriors’ four-game win streak and brings them to 9-4 on the season. British Columbia is now at 11-2.
Hardy kept the Warriors off balance at the plate—especially in the first three innings in which he kept LCSC hitless. The 6-foot-4 lefthander threw 101 pitches to record five strikeouts and hold the Warriors to five hits and two runs. Hardy is now 2-1 on the season.
Tom Peale, who was tabbed with his first loss of the season, started the game for the Warriors and recorded eight strikeouts but ran into trouble in the middle innings.
Peale gave up the first run of the game in the third inning when Sammie Starr led off the inning with a double to right center. Two batters later, Ryan Pilgrim one-hopped the fence in leftfield to bring Starr home.
British Columbia managed to score in the following four innings as well, with its biggest production coming in the fifth.
UBC’s fifth inning was kicked started by single from Pilgrim, following by a double to left center by Mitch Grossell. Peale then struck out the following batter to keep the runners at second and third, and intentionally walked Scott Webster to load the bases. Peale then struck another batter out for the second out of the inning; however, he then walked Ben Torrie on a three-two pitch to surrender a run. Nick Masters then entered the game in relief, and after plunking one batter to force in a run, forced a ground ball to end the inning.
Masters worked the final four innings for the Warriors and gave up four hits and two runs. He finished with four strikeouts.
The Warriors, currently ranked No. 7 in the NAIA, tried to stage a late-inning comeback as they plated a run in the seventh and two in the eighth.
In the seventh the Warriors used two hits and a walk to bring in a run, and in the eighth, with the bases loaded and two outs, Matt Allen lined a two-run single.
Starr played the lead role for UBC’s offense as he went 4-for-4 with two runs batted in and a run scored. Pilgrim and Grossell both finished with two hits apiece, and Jordan Pandoff ended up with the only homerun of the game as he hit a leadoff homerun on the first pitch thrown of the fourth inning.
Only four Warriors had a hit in the game.
Sean Halton, who is now batting .425 (17-for-40) on the season, drove in a run and scored a run in his 3-for-5 day, Allen and Kawika Emsley-Pai had two hits apiece, and Kyle Melton had the only other hit.
Lewis-Clark State finished with eight hits and two errors, while UBC had 12 hits and one error.
The Warriors continue their series with UBC on Saturday at 1 p.m. and Sunday at noon.
Note: LCSC catcher Brian Ward, last season’s Avista NAIA World Series MVP, played his first game of the season on Friday after recently being reinstated to the team.
