Riding the arm of sophomore right-handed pitcher Justin White, the Corban University baseball team doubled its win total over Lewis-Clark State College at LCSC’s Harris Field on Sunday.
White tossed a complete-game five-hit shutout to help Corban defeated LCSC for only the second time in program history with a 4-0 triumph in NAIA West play.
The win helped Corban snap a 49-game losing streak to LCSC dating back to 1999 when the school was called Western Baptist. LCSC, which won the first three games of the series, is now 51-2 all-time against Corban.
Corban scored a pair of unearned runs and took a 2-0 lead into the ninth inning and then added two more with a pair of RBI doubles.
LCSC was its own worst enemy on Sunday with three errors and stranding 11 runners on base.
White, who improved to 4-1, helped Corban move to 9-5 overall and 1-3 in league play. He threw 139 pitches, 87 of which were for strikes and managed to stay in the game despite a couple of visits to the mound by Corban coach Jeff McKay in the late innings.
“They were the better team,” LCSC coach Gary Picone said. “The better team won today. We couldn’t handle their pitcher.”
LCSC, 16-4 overall and 6-2 in league play, left 41 runners stranded during the four-game series. The five hits also were a season low in a game.
LCSC wasted a good outing by pitcher Mitchell Wilhite, who was making his first start of the season after three relief performances. Wilhite, a junior right-hander, allowed four hits and one walk in his five innings, and he struck out three. Both of the runs he allowed were unearned.
Corban picked up its first run in the second inning when Steven Candelaria walked, went to second on a wild pitch, and moved to third on a fielding error. He then scored on a two-out fielding error.
In the fifth, Corban picked up another run when Gregg Romero reached on shortstop Bobby Tannehill’s second error of the game. Colby Sokol hit a two-out run-scoring double to make it 2-0.
In the meantime, the Warriors struggled against White. In the second inning, LCSC had runners on first and second with no outs and failed to move them. LCSC had runners on first and third with out in the third, first and second with two outs in the fourth, and the first two batters on in the fifth, but failed to produce.
Corban doubled its run total in the ninth when Marc Gallegos drew a one-out walk off of reliever Tyler Gofinch. Romero then doubled to left to score Gallegos and Atkinson followed with an RBI double to left-center field to make it 4-0.
LCSC, which did turn three double plays in the game, did not collect an extra-base hit.
LCSC will return to action next Friday in Redding, Calif., for the start of a four-game league series with Simpson. The two teams meet at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, a noon doubleheader on Saturday, and a single game at noon on Sunday
LCSC’s next home game is March 16 at 6 p.m. in the first game of a four-game series with the College of Idaho at Harris Field.
