This Week In Warrior Athletics

April 9, 2007

EVENTS: 

Baseball: at Concordia University, Portland. Friday, April 13, 3 p.m.; Saturday, April 14 (2), noon; Sunday, April 15, 1 p.m.

Men’s tennis – vs. Community Colleges of Spokane, Tuesday, April 10, 3 p.m., LCSC Tennis Center; at Gonzaga, Sunday, April 15, 2 p.m., Spokane.

Women’s tennis – at Whitworth, Wednesday, April 11, 3 p.m., Spokane; at Gonzaga, Saturday, April 14, 10 a.m., Spokane.

Baseball: 

After finishing their busiest stretch of the regular-season schedule, the Warriors will have some time to work on things in practice this week before resuming play on Friday with a three-game Region I series against Concordia University at Portland.

The Warriors, who played nine games in nine days during an 8-1 homestand, will have six days off between games as they prepare for the final month of regular-season play.

LCSC is 12-1 in Region I play and the NAIA’s top-ranked team is 31-3 overall. Concordia, which has two non-league games this week, stands at 9-8 in region play and 13-15 overall.

The two teams met in a four-game series at LCSC’s Harris Field in March with the Warriors winning all four (only three were league games) by at least five runs. LCSC outscored Concordia 48-13 in the four games.

LCSC has won three in a row and 12 of its last 13, and now heads into a stretch of 15 consecutive Region I games. LCSC leads the region, but if it wins the region title, the second-place team will play host to the region tournament because LCSC is already guaranteed a berth in the Avista NAIA World Series. Currently, the University of British Columbia is second in the region.

Junior center-fielder Brent Wyatt and junior third-baseman Beau Mills are coming off huge weeks. In the six games LCSC played last week, Wyatt went 14-for-27 at the plate (.519 average) with 13 RBI and 15 runs scored. Mills, who bats third behind Wyatt in the lineup, went 12-for-27 (.444) with 13 RBI and 11 runs scored. He also hit five home runs during the week.

Mills leads the Warrior regulars with a .460 average, 64 hits, 57 runs, 16 home runs and 64 RBI. He’s second on the team with 15 doubles. Senior catcher Jessie Mier is at .393 with 40 RBI and a team-high 18 doubles. Mark Thompson is at .391, and Wyatt’s average jumped to .361.

As a team, the Warriors are hitting .343 and have scored 351 runs for an average of better than 10 runs a game. LCSC has outscored the opposition this year 351-95.

On the mound, Will Morgan (2-1, four saves) leads the regulars with a 0.68 earned run averaged. He’s appeared in a team-high 14 games this season and pitched 40 innings. He’s allowed just 21 hits and three earned runs, with eight walks and 46 strikeouts. Brian Parker (2-0, four saves) has a 1.86 ERA and has thrown 29 innings. He’s struck out 34 and walked seven.

Junior Chris Kissock leads the team in wins. He’s 8-0 with a 1.89 ERA. He’s thrown 57 innings, allowed 48 hits and 15 walks, with 38 strikeouts. As a team, the Warriors have a 2.43 ERA and have struck out 302 batters in 304 innings, compared to just 89 walks. Opponents have just a .221 average against the staff. 

Men’s tennis: 

After having matches against Whitworth and Whitman cancelled, the Warrior men will try to get rolling again this week in a pair of matches.

LCSC, 9-9 overall and ranked No. 21 in the NAIA, plays at home against Community Colleges of Spokane on Tuesday, before hitting the road to face Gonzaga Saturday in Spokane. Gonzaga already has a 7-0 win over the Warriors this season.

Borja Molas, a senior from Barcelona, Spain, has cracked the top 10 in the ITA Fila Rankings released earlier in April. This marks the first time since 2000 that a player from the men's team received that distinction. The previous Warrior, Vinicius Vieira, holds the all-time highest singles ranking at No. 4.

Molas is 11-3 on the season, including a three-set win over No. 11-ranked David Goodman of Azusa Pacific. That marked the first time in six years that the Warriors scored an individual victory against the perennial NAIA powerhouse.

LCSC’s Ara Sarkissian, a senior from Uppsala, Sweden, is ranked No. 36. 

Women’s tennis: 

The Warriors snapped a four-match losing streak last week with a 9-0 win over Community Colleges of Spokane, and will look to keep the ball rolling this week when they travel to Spokane twice, first to play Whitworth on Wednesday, and then to face Gonzaga on Saturday.

LCSC, 8-7 overall and ranked No. 18 in the NAIA, will be looking to avenge a 6-1 setback to the Zags earlier this year in Lewiston. In that match, LCSC lost two doubles matches that went down to the wire, which made for one of the most decisive losses in the series. Shefat Baishakhi, a sophomore from Dhaka, Bangladesh, picked up the only win for the Warriors against Gonzaga.