LEWISTON, Idaho – Back in the friendly confines of Harris Field, the Lewis-Clark State College baseball team brought an end to a two-game losing streak with a lopsided league win over Menlo College on Friday night. The No. 8-ranked Warriors topped the Oaks 10-3.
“I just like the way that we competed,” said LCSC head coach Jeremiah Robbins. “We’ve been working with our hitters to find a way to put up some crooked numbers and have better approaches in the box and we did that today.”
After producing just four runs in two losses on the road against Corban last week, the Warriors pounded 12 hits to back the strong outing of starter Anthony Armanino.
Armanino, a left-handed senior, surrendered just one earned run (three total) and four hits in six innings of work to improve to 4-1 on the year. He struck out six and threw exactly 100 pitches.
David Murillo came on in relief and tossed two hitless innings for the Warriors with three strikeouts. Tyler Duffin made his season debut and pitched a scoreless ninth with two strikeouts including a strikeout looking on a big curveball to end the game.
“When Anthony is pitching you know he’s going to keep us right there, and Murillo coming in and doing what he did, and then Duffin getting his first opportunity this season, it was just a good effort overall.”
LCSC, now 13-5 and 3-2 in NAIA West play, used timely hitting to add more than enough cushion on the scoreboard. The team plated two runs in the third, one in the fourth, and then exploded for three in the sixth, and four in the seventh.
Brian Corliss (pictured above), who was one of four Warriors with two hits, did the most damage when he smacked a three-run triple over the center fielder’s head in the seventh. Zach Holley drove in two runs with a clutch single in the sixth, and Brady Steiger had an RBI single in the third.
All three hits came with two outs.
“Kind of what has snake bit us a little bit early in the season is not getting those timely hits, so to see it this opening game of this series is promising for us,” said Robbins “I think we prepared really well going into this series.”
Starter James Jensen took the loss for Menlo. He went six innings, surrendering nine hits and six runs (three earned). The Oaks used three pitchers in relief.
LCSC’s pitching held Menlo (9-10, 2-3) to just five hits in the game. The bulk of the Oaks’ offense came courtesy of Warrior errors. Menlo scored unearned runs in the fourth and fifth innings as Lewis-Clark State finished with five errors on the night.
“We need to clean it up defensively.”
The four-game series will continue on Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at noon. The LCSC athletic department is running a canned food drive and all fans who donate two cans of food on Saturday will receive free admission.
