MONMOUTH, Ore. – Senior Tyrell Poggemeyer has been one of the mainstays of the Lewis-Clark State College baseball team’s rotation this season and on Friday he proved his worth once again. The right-hander surrender just one run in seven innings and the Warriors rolled past Western Oregon University 10-1.
The win brings LCSC, which was ranked No. 14 in the NAIA on Tuesday, to 21-7 overall, while Western Oregon, an NCAA Division-II school, drops to 16-11. The two teams will continue the four-game series with a doubleheader starting at noon on Saturday and then a single game at noon on Sunday.
Until the Warriors batted through the lineup in the ninth to scored six runs, Friday’s game was pretty much a pitcher’s duel between Poggemeyer and Western Oregon’s ace Michael Ward.
Ward, a right-handed senior, held the Warriors to four runs through 6.2 innings of work, but was outdone by Poggemeyer who allowed just five hits while striking out two. Poggemeyer has now pitched 40.2 innings on the season and has given up only five runs. He stands at 4-1 with a sparkling 1.11 ERA, and opponents are hitting just .171 against him.
With a current team ERA of 2.35, the Warriors are on pace to finish with the second lowest ERA in the program’s past 35 years.
Friday’s game was scoreless until the third inning when a leadoff single by Connor Moore started a Warrior rally. Moore advanced to second on a wild pitch, Aaron DeGuire walked, and then Cody Weiss slapped a single to right center to give LC a 1-0 edge.
In the fourth, it was Moore again that got the Warriors rolling, this time by reaching via a throwing error by the third basemen which also moved him up to second base. DeGuire followed this with a sacrifice bunt to push him to third, and Weiss grabbed another RBI with a groundout to the shortstop.
After being retired three-up and three-down in the second, third, and fourth, the Wolves finally got on the board in the sixth thanks to a solo home run by Daniel Dillard over the fence in left field to make it 2-1.
The Warriors answered in the seventh though with three hits and two runs. Kyle Knigge and Moore led off with back-to-back singles, and DeGuire again laid down a sac bunt to move the runners up, but this time instead of Weiss it was Kevin Lovelace who cashed in. Lovelace lined a two-out, two-run single up the middle to make it 4-1.
The lead remained at three until the ninth when pitching issues coupled with four Warrior hits spelled big trouble for Western Oregon. In the inning there was one walk, four hit batsmen, and two wild pitches coupled with a two-run single by Bridges, a double by Brian Gaylord, and an RBI single from Alfonso Casillas.
Lewis-Clark State, which fell to Western Oregon 5-2 at home in February, was outhit 10-7 in the teams’ previous meeting but had a 13-6 advantage in hits on Friday.
Six Warriors finished with two hits in the game including Weiss, Lovelace, and Bridges who also had two RBI apiece. Moore led with three runs scored. Bo Folkinga was the only member of the Wolves to finish with multiple hits as he went 3-for-4.
The Warriors were also aided by good defense on the day as Bridges made a nice diving stop on a ground ball to get Folkinga out in the fourth, Gaylord had a good dig at first to wrap-up a double play in the sixth, and Gino Casino snared a line drive to rob a hit in the eighth.
