KEIZER, Ore. – The Lewis-Clark State College baseball team opened up NAIA West play on the right foot on Friday afternoon against division foe Corban University. The Warriors pounded 25 hits during the doubleheader played at Volcanoes Stadium to take the first game 10-6 and the second 8-1.
The wins lift No. 8 LCSC to 12-3 overall and 2-0 in the NAIA West, a division composed of four Cascade Conference schools plus British Columbia University, Menlo College, Simpson University, and Lewis-Clark State.
The opener on Friday started as a pitching duel but turned into a race around the bases before it was done.
Warrior starter Anthony Armanino pitched six scoreless innings before surrendering two runs in the seventh. The left-handed senior struck out five en route to improving to 3-1 on the year.
Jamie McCaffrey, also a left-handed senior, took the start for Corban and pitched well until running into trouble in the sixth. McCaffrey ended up taking the loss (3-2) after giving up five runs (four earned), seven hits, and three walks. He struck out three.
LCSC used three hits, an error, two walks, and two hit batsmen to plate five runs in the sixth. Brady Steiger added two more with a double in the seventh, and Ryan sells pushed the lead to 9-5 with a solo home run in the ninth. It was Sells’ third homer in two games.
Both bullpens faltered in relief, allowing nine runs to be scored after the starters left the game, however, closer Sal Arena got the Warriors out of what could have been a game-changing situation in the eighth. Arena entered with the bases loaded but escaped the jam with a strikeout to earn his third save of the year.
In the second contest, the Warriors kept scoring but Corban’s offense was shut down by LCSC starter Carsen Nylund (pictured above).
Nylund, a 6-foot-4 junior from Surrey, B.C., used 85 pitches to cruise through 7 1/3 innings. The right-hander surrendered just one run on six hits and struck out four.
LCSC got on the board quickly thanks to an RBI single by Brian Corliss followed by a two-run single by Zach Holley in the third. The Warriors then scored one run apiece in the next two frames, and Eric Peterson added an RBI double as part of a three-run rally in the fifth.
Steiger, who went 3-for-4 with three runs and two RBI’s in the first game, was one of three Warriors to finish with four hits on the day. Peterson was 4-for-6 with two runs and two RBI’s, and Cody Lavalli was 4-for-7 with three runs and three RBI’s. Holly ended up 3-for-7 with four runs batted in.
Corban, now 9-5 and 0-2, collected 13 hits in the two games and had five errors to LCSC’s two.
The two teams will complete the four-game series with another doubleheader on Saturday. The first pitched is set for 11 a.m.
