LEWISTON, Idaho – The Lewis-Clark State College baseball allowed just one run as it swept its doubleheader with the College of Idaho on Saturday. The Warriors took the opening game 4-0 and the second 7-1.
LCSC used only four pitchers on the day. Michael Noteware and Mitchell Wilhite combined for the shutout in game one, and Luke Goodgion and Sal Arena carried the load in game two.
“We pitched good all day,” said LCSC head coach Gary Picone. “All four guys threw well, and we played defense.”
Noteware went five innings to earn the win in game one. He struck out three and surrendered five hits and a walk. Wilhite garnered the save by throwing the final four innings. He struck out two and surrendered just two hits and a walk.
All of the Warriors’ run support came in the fifth inning—directly after a 10 minute rain delay. The delay was the only one of the day as the sun was out for the remainder of the contests.
The inning began with LCSC’s Brandon Bufton lining a double off the wall in left center on the first pitch offered. After a hit batsmen, Trent Bridges followed with an RBI double. Alfonso Casillas then brought another run in with a sac fly, and later in the inning a walk, a wild pitch, and a Coyote fielding error helped plate two more.
Both teams finished with just seven hits apiece in the first game. College of Idaho was hurt by a 4-0 lead in errors.
The second game played out in much of the same way as the first. The Warriors had good pitching and were able to capitalize on Coyote mistakes.
Goodgion started the game and went 4.2 innings, holding the Coyotes to one run on seven hits. He struck out three. Arena entered the game in the fifth inning and induced a ground out to strand runners at second and third.
Arena ended up going 4.1 innings, striking out three, and surrendering just two hits to earn the win. The right-hander benefited from inning-ending double plays in the seventh and eighth.
The Warriors used a sac fly and a ground ball to the right side to score a couple runs early, but they did the bulk of their scoring in the seventh.
The rally started with a walk followed by a single by Casillas and an RBI single by Braxton Miller. Two errors later in the inning help bring three more runs in and push the inning total to four.
The Warriors outhit the Coyotes 9-8 and committed just one error to the College of Idaho’s four.
Bridges led with a combined five hits on the day.
With the victories, LCSC improves to 20-6 overall and 11-3 in the NAIA West. The College of Idaho dips to 18-8 and 4-3.
The four-game series will wrap up on Sunday with a final game starting at 1 p.m. After this the Warriors will jump right into a four-game series with No. 5-ranked Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University starting at 6 p.m. on Monday night.
By the time the Embry-Riddle series comes to a close on Wednesday, LCSC will have played eight games in six days.
“We’re not built to pitch 72 innings in six days, but we’ll do it,” Picone said about the daunting task facing his pitching staff. “It’ll take more good performances like the ones we had today.”
