The Lewis-Clark State College baseball team again used strong pitching and timely hitting to claim a 3-2 win over Western Oregon during the third day of the Guardian Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning Tournament on Saturday at LCSC’s Harris Field.
For the second straight contest, the Warriors were outhit 8-5, but managed to win the game by a run as they made the plays when needed.
Saturday’s win moved LCSC to 6-1 overall and 3-0 in the tournament, which wraps up on Sunday. There are five teams participating in the tournament, but Central Washington will only play two games while the remaining four have four contests.
As with Friday’s 2-1 win over St. Martin’s, the Warriors stymied their opponent in critical situations. St. Martin’s couldn’t take advantage of scoring situations and left 14 on base, while LCSC had only three left on. That disparity wasn’t as big on Saturday as LCSC against left only three on, while Western Oregon left eight.
LCSC starter Tyler Lichty went 5.1 innings and allowed five hits, including a pair of solo home runs, and he also struck out six. Of the 67 pitches he threw, 48 were for strikes, but it was the last pitch he threw, a fastball that was deposited over the fence by Daniel Dillard, that tied the game at 2-2 in the sixth.
Fortunately for the Warriors, they also had a pair of solo home runs. Josh Ashenbrenner’s third home run of the season, a shot to straight away center field in the sixth, put the Warriors back in front at 3-2.
That was enough for relievers Cody Fassold and Henry Buenrostro to make stand. Fassold picked up the win to improve to 1-0 on the season. He pitched 1.2 innings of relief and gave up a hit, a walk, and also hit a batter. The walk and hit batter came with two outs in the sixth and he was able to get a pop up to end the Wolves’ threat, while a two-out double by Cesar Lopez in the seventh went for naught when the next batter flew out to right.
Buenrostro pitched the final two innings. After breezing through a 1-2-3 eighth inning, Buenrostro gave up consecutive singles with one out in the ninth, which made the Warrior bullpen active. Buenrostro, however, picked up his second save of the season with a strike out an infield pop up to end the game.
In all, the three LCSC pitchers combined for nine strikeouts, one walk, and one hit batter.
Western Oregon’s Michael Ward and Jesse Nunley also threw well. The two combined on a five-hitter with four strikeouts, one walk, and one hit batter. Ward went seven innings and allowed the five hits and three runs to fall to 1-1 on the season.
LCSC broke into the scoring column in the second inning when Pat Murray opened with a double and went to third on a throwing error. Brian Gaylord’s sacrifice fly to left scored Murray.
The teams then exchanged solo home runs in the fifth and sixth innings. Jason Moseby led off the top of the fifth with his first home run of the season, while Dillard’s shot an inning later was his third for the Wolves, who fall to 3-8 overall.
Kevin Lovelace hit his first home run of the season in the bottom of the fifth to give LCSC its temporary 2-1 advantage, while Ashenbrenner’s shot was his first of the tournament.
Ashenbrenner and Lovelace both finished with two hits apiece, while Murray’s double was the only other Warrior hit.
Eight Western Oregon players finished with one hit apiece.
LCSC wraps up tournament play on Sunday against Linfield at 1:30 p.m. Western Oregon and St. Martin’s open Sunday’s play at 10 a.m.
In other games on Saturday, Linfield beat St. Martin’s 11-3, while Central Washington and Western Oregon were playing the late game.
