LEWISTON, Idaho – The Lewis-Clark State College baseball team fought its way to two wins at the Guardian Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning Tournament on Saturday. The Warriors first pounded past George Fox University 13-6, and then rallied to take down British Columbia 7-6 in the nightcap.
The wins improve the Warriors to 5-2 overall and 3-0 in tournament play. The three-day event will wrap up on Sunday with Concordia (Ore.) and George Fox playing at 11 a.m., and LCSC and British Columbia squaring off in the tournament title game at 2 p.m. UBC has gone 2-1 in the tournament, Concordia is at 1-2, and George Fox is 0-3.
“It was a long day and I’m proud of them,” said LCSC head coach Gary Picone about his players. “We played 18 innings and I thought we played hard in every one of them.”
The No. 11-ranked Warriors cruised in the first game against George Fox thanks to an eight-run second inning.
Alfonso Casillas started the inning by leading off with a home run over the fence in left field, his third homer of the season. The Warriors followed with five more hits after this including a two-run double by Billy Silvestri, and a two-run single by Bobby Tannehill.
LCSC carried an 8-0 lead until the fifth inning when a couple walks and a hit batsmen followed by a throwing error by the shortstop ended what began as an outstanding outing for starting pitcher Anthony Armanino. The lefty fanned nine batters and gave up just two hits, but left the game after 4.2 innings of work. Because of the error, none of the four runs he surrendered were earned.
The Warriors answered with three runs in the bottom of the fifth to keep the game out of reach and then tacked on two more in the seventh for good measure. Connor Moore, who led the game with three runs batted in, highlighted the fifth inning with a two-run triple.
Overall, LCSC led 10-4 in hits and committed just two errors to the Bruins’ five.
Tyler Duffin picked up the win for the Warriors as he piched 4.1 innings in long relief and surrendered just two hits and one earned run. He struck out four and walked three.
Against British Columbia, Lewis-Clark State was forced to play catch up after surrendering three runs to the Thunderbirds in the first inning.
With three hits, including an RBI double by Casillas, the Warriors answered with three runs in the fourth, however, UBC struck again with three more runs in the fifth to make it 6-3.
The Warriors went right back to work in the bottom of the inning and answered with two runs thanks to RBI singles by Trent Bridges and Casillas. This made it 6-5.
Connor Moore then hit a two-out single up the middle to score the tying run in the sixth, and Silvestri plated the winning run with a line-drive single to right center.
Garrett Tygerson ended up earning the win for the Warriors. The right-hander entered the game in long relief and kept the Thunderbirds quiet for 3.1 innings. He gave up two hits while striking out five. Sal Arena gathered the final four outs, including a strikeout to end the game, to earn the save.
Bridges led the game with three hits, two runs, and two RBI; Casillas added two hits and two runs batted in. British Columbia, which was hurt by four errors in the game, was led by two hits and two RBI by Jerod Bartnik.
“It was a good win,” said Picone about the teams comeback victory over UBC. “We’re not starting games the way we’d like to, but I thought we battled all night.”
