LEWISTON, Idaho – Eight runs in the first two innings and a grand slam by Rene Escobar (left) in the sixth helped the Warriors cruise to their third straight win on Saturday evening at Harris Field. The Lewis-Clark State College baseball team rocked the College of Idaho 16-7.
With 17 hits on Saturday, the Warriors have now collected 54 hits in their last three games—all against the Coyotes.
By winning 20-3 on Thursday, 13-5 on Friday, and 16-7 on Saturday, LCSC has now outscored College of Idaho 49-15 in the first three games or a four-game series. The Warriors and Coyotes will play the finale on Sunday at noon.
LCSC had a season-high nine extra-base hits, including four homers, in improving its overall record to 28-9 on Saturday. The Coyotes, now 1-6 against the Warriors this year, see their record drop to 25-16.
Five Warriors had multiple hits in the game with Escobar’s 3-for-5 night with a home run, two doubles, and four RBI standing out among the offensive leaders. Meanwhile, Colby Hawk, in his first start after dominating in his seven appearances out of the bullpen so far this year, pitched five strong innings to earn the win and improve to 4-0.
Trying to answer the one run and three hits the Coyotes put up in the top of the first, the Warriors answered in the bottom of the inning with three hits and four runs. Paul Martin and Josh Ashenbrenner led the inning off with back-to-back singles, and a walk later, Ben Ornelas drove in two runs with a double to left center. This was followed by a sky-high sacrifice fly by Sean Halton to plate the third run, and a double-steal by Kyle Melton and Ornelas to score the fourth. The Coyote throw to second was too late to get Melton and the throw back home was too late to nail a sliding Ornelas.
In the second, LCSC plated four-more runs via two two-run blasts. Ashenbrenner hit his home run to straight-away center field and Halton followed with a bomb that hit the very top of the bleachers in left. It was Ashenbrenner’s fourth and Halton’s team-leading 11th home run of the year.
Then in the fourth, Ben Ornelas sent an 0-0 over the right field fence to make the score 9-1. It was his sixth long ball this season—second most on the team.
Diego Robles gave the Coyotes some hope in the top of the sixth when he plated three runs with a long ball to left to make the score 9-4. However, much hope for a comeback was extinguished when Escobar sent his third homer of the season over the left field wall to clear the bases and score four more in the bottom of the inning.
In the eighth, College of Idaho tacked on two more by way of two hits and a throwing error by LC, but the Warriors responded with a double by Escobar followed by back-to-back triples from Crispin Tarango and Melton to get the two runs back.
Overall, both Halton and Ornelas finished with two hits, three RBI, and two runs; Ashenbrenner had two hits, two RBI, and two runs; and Martin had two hits and two runs. Martin’s single to lead off the first inning extended his hitting streak to nine games.
For the Coyotes, Cody Brubaker, Jake Miller, and Robles led the offensive totals. Brubaker finished 2-for-3 with three runs, Miller had two hits and two RBI, and Robles drove in four.
