LCSC BASEBALL: Warriors drop doubleheader to College of Idaho Coyotes
Feb. 25—The Warriors have had one of the longer layoffs in the NAIA since starting the season. On Friday, the Lewis-Clark State baseball team beat the College of Idaho Coyotes 15-6 — 20 days after its last game.
On Saturday, in Games 2 and 3 of the four-game series against College of Idaho, LCSC lost 5-4 and 14-5, respectively, at Wolfe Field in Caldwell. The Warriors managed comeback attempts in both games of the doubleheader, but fell short.
It's the first time the Coyotes have taken two games in a row off the Warriors since April, 2015.
Lewis-Clark State fell behind early in both games — making it three in a row the Warriors trailed early against College of Idaho.
Here's how Saturday's doubleheader played out:
LCSC comeback falls one run short
Game 1 of the doubleheader was a traditional low-scoring, back-and-forth game instead of the run-heavy ones it was sandwiched between.
The Coyotes (8-9) struck first in the bottom of the second with an RBI single from Jack Ingraham to go up 1-0. College of Idaho tallied another run two innings later. Ingraham's second RBI of the game scored Alex Moon and the Coyotes led 2-0.
The Warriors (4-3) responded with a four runs in the top of the fifth that consisted of RBI singles from Jack Sheward, Ike George, Carter Booth and Nick Seamons.
The four runs put LCSC up 4-2 going into the bottom of the fifth, but the Warriors had left two on base, something that became a theme on Saturday and has been recurring through LCSC's seven games this season.
The two-run Warrior lead stood through the sixth inning and the top of the seventh, but a three-run home run from Alex McFarland-Smith in the bottom of the seventh put COI back up 5-4.
Coyotes relief pitchers Colby Durski and Jackson Cummins kept LCSC off the board in the final two innings to secure the win.
Coyotes sprint out in front in nightcap
College of Idaho led early again in Game 2, but by a much larger margin.
By the fifth inning, the Coyotes led 8-0 with scoring outputs of three runs in the first inning, two in the second, two in the third and one in the fourth.
A solo-shot home run from Brandon Cabrera in the top of the sixth was the Warriors' first run of the game.
After a scoreless seventh inning, LCSC put up four runs in the top of the eighth to cut COI's lead down to 8-5. The Coyotes promptly responded with six runs in the bottom half of the frame to bump its lead to 14-5, which was the final score.
Warrior hurlers struggle
LCSC's offensive lineup is still undergoing some tinkering with Utah transfer Jake Gish returning to the fold and defending Avista NAIA World Series MVP Isaiah Thomas still out with an injury. Both Gish and Thomas took two at-bats in the season-opener against then-No. 7 Bellevue (Neb.) before missing the rest of the East/West Challenge in Arizona with injuries.
Considering that, along with the near-three week layoff and inconsistent practice conditions due to the weather, some offensive struggles or inconsistencies aren't something to sound the alarm over this early in the season.
But pitching was the biggest drawback for the Warriors on Saturday.
The two most successful pitching outings LCSC had were Game 1 starter Jace Hanson and Game 2 reliever Tucker Grote.
Hanson pitched five innings and struck out seven of 22 batters faced, walked just three and gave up four hits resulting in two earned runs.
Grote, who pitched from the fifth through seventh innings in Game 2, struck out just one of 11 batters faced but gave up no hits and no earned runs and walked just one. Fellow reliever Kolby Solomon, who pitched the two innings before Grote, was the other standout with three strikeouts of nine batters faced and just one run (unearned).
The Warriors had nine pitchers take the mound during the two games on Saturday and are now up to 11 total for the series.
The lineup will figure itself out. It's averaging eight runs a game through three contests against College of Idaho so far. But the starting rotation and bullpen is still something that needs ironed out ahead of the team's home opener Friday against a rolling British Columbia team.
Players of the day
Cabrera went 3-for-7 with a home run, crossed home plate three times and stole a base during the doubleheader.
Noah Weintraub went 2-for-4 on the day with two RBI and crossed home plate once.
Up next
Lewis-Clark State will have a chance to walk out of Caldwell with a series split against College of Idaho in Game 4 of the series at 10 a.m. today at Wolfe Field in Caldwell.
GAME 1
LEWIS-CLARK STATE COLLEGE OF IDAHO
ab r h bi ab r h bi
Cabrera rf 3 1 1 0 Gaff 2b 3 0 0 0
Booth cf 4 0 1 1 Stocking ss 3 1 0 0
Seamons lf 4 0 2 1 McFarland-Smith rf 4 1 2 3
Updegrave 1b 4 0 0 0 Kirkpatrick lf 4 0 0 0
Signorelli 3b 3 0 0 0 Moon dh 3 1 0 0
Sheward c 4 0 1 1 Smith 1b 4 1 1 0
Weintraub pr 0 1 0 0 Watkins cf 4 0 1 0
Rivera ss 3 0 1 0 Danner c 1 0 0 0
De Sa ph 1 0 0 0 Jelinek pr 0 0 0 0
George 2b 4 1 1 1 Ingraham 3b 3 0 1 2
Stiles pr 0 1 0 0
Totals 34 4 8 4 Totals 29 5 5 5
Lewis-Clark State 000 040 000—4 8 1
College of Idaho 010 100 30x—5 5 1
Lewis-Clark State ip h r er bb so
Jace Hanson 5 4 2 2 3 7
Jake Green (L, 0-1) 2 1 3 3 1 1
Eli Takalo 1 0 0 0 0 0
College of Idaho ip h r er bb so
Nate Vidlak (W, 2-0) 7 7 4 0 2 8
Colby Durski 1 0 0 0 0 2
Jackson Cummins (S, 1) 1 1 0 0 0 1
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GAME 2
LEWIS-CLARK STATE COLLEGE OF IDAHO
ab r h bi ab r h bi
Booth cf 5 0 1 0 Gaff 2b 5 1 2 0
Seamons lf 0 0 0 0 Lehnertz pr 0 1 0 0
Cabrera lf 4 2 2 1 Stocking ss 4 2 1 0
Updegrave rf 2 0 0 0 McFarland-Smith rf 4 1 1 0
Sol ph 2 0 0 0 Mahlke ph 0 1 0 0
Sheward ph 0 0 0 0 Kirkpatrick lf 3 2 0 1
Gish 1b 5 1 1 1 Watkins ph 0 1 0 1
Signorelli 3b 2 0 0 0 Kelly c 2 0 1 3
Overmars ph 1 1 1 1 Jelinek pr 0 1 0 0
De Sa 2b 4 1 1 0 Eliason pr 0 1 0 0
Marquez c 3 0 0 0 Danner c 0 0 0 0
Weintraub dh 4 0 2 2 Smith 1b 5 1 2 2
Hofstetter ss 3 0 1 0 Iwamizu dh 2 0 0 0
George pr 1 0 0 0 Stiles pr 0 0 0 0
Moon ph 1 0 1 2
Ebe cf 3 1 0 1
Ingraham 3b 3 1 1 1
Totals 36 5 9 5 Totals 32 14 9 11
Lewis-Clark State 000 001 040— 5 9 5
College of Idaho 322 100 06x—14 9 0
Lewis-Clark State ip h r er bb so
Decker Stedman (L, 1-1) 1 5 5 3 1 1
Brennen Farber 1 1 2 1 1 0
Kolby Solomon 2 0 1 0 3 3
Tucker Grote 3 0 0 0 1 1
Dallas McGill 0 1 3 3 2 0
Jadon Williamson 1 2 3 3 2 2
College of Idaho ip h r er bb so
Oliver Massie (W, 1-2) 6 3 1 1 1 9
Dawson Cummins 1.1 5 4 4 1 1
Colby Durski 0.2 1 0 0 0 1
Jackson Cummins 1 0 0 0 1 2
