LEWISTON, Idaho – The Lewis-Clark State College baseball team hammered the University of British Columbia 12-5 on Saturday at Harris Field. The win helps the Warriors compensate for Friday’s 6-4 loss and ties the three-game series at 1-1.
LCSC used a three-run first inning and a five-run seventh by way of 13 hits to drop the Thunderbirds to 11-3 on the season. Kyle Melton and Josh Ashenbrenner had big days for the Warriors at the plate as they both drove in three runs and had three hits apiece, and Sean Halton teed off for his sixth homer of the season.
The Warriors, now 10-4 on the year, will face British Columbia in the final game of the series on Sunday at noon.
Lewis-Clark State got things started in the first inning via two hits, two walks, and a sacrifice fly. LCSC then went on a three-inning scoring drought, but came alive to score a combined nine runs in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth.
British Columbia did all of its scoring in two innings. UBC’s Nic Lindsay put a couple of runs on the board in the second inning when he blasted a full-count pitch over the wall in centerfield, and four hits, including an RBI double by Lindsay, plated three Thunderbirds in the sixth.
The game was tied 5-5 after the top of the sixth, however, in the bottom of the inning Ashenbrenner lined an RBI single to score the go ahead run, and the following inning the Warriors batted through the order to bust the game wide open.
LCSC had four hits in the seventh inning and three of them were for extra bases. Halton launched the first pitch of the inning over right field wall, and Travis Georgius and Melton soon followed with RBI doubles.
Halton and Kawika Emsley-Pai each finished with two hits and two runs batted in. Halton has now homered in six of the 12 games he’s played in. Ironically, all of his homeruns this season have been solo shots.
Matt Stabelfeld started for the Warriors and pitched 5 1/3 innings with six strikeouts for a no decision. Dustin Willis pitched the final 3 2/3 innings without surrendering a run to earn his third win of the season. Willis allowed only two hits and struck out three.
Former Warrior Ashton Florko was tagged with the loss for UBC as he gave up a run in the sixth and four in the seventh. British Columbia used a total of four pitchers in the game.
The Thunderbirds’ offense was powered by Lindsay who went 2-for-2 with three runs batted in, and Alex White who drove in a run and was 3-for-4.
