Lewis-Clark State Warriors send College of Idaho Coyotes scurrying
Apr. 7—The Warriors dominated the Coyotes in every facet of the game on Saturday at Harris Field. Lewis-Clark State averaged 10 runs per game and held College of Idaho to three runs total to sweep the Cascade Conference baseball doubleheader. The Warriors won 14-1 (seven innings) and 6-2.
"I thought our pitching was outstanding today," LCSC coach Jake Taylor said. "I thought Shane (Spencer) dominated the first game and Decker (Stedman) gave us a good start. And our bullpen in Game 2 was fantastic, also. Any time you limit the other team to three runs in two games you got a pretty high probability of winning both."
LCSC (22-9, 12-3) put up a near-record breaking performance from its offense that helped facilitate the doubleheader sweep.
Double it and give it to the next person
In the bottom of the fifth in Game 1, junior right fielder Brandon Cabrera hit his seventh home run of the season — a three-run shot. The long ball bolstered the Warriors' lead to 6-1, but it was just a precursor to the onslaught LCSC's offense pieced together an inning later.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Warriors hit five doubles. They were just one two-base hit shy from tying the program record for the most in an inning.
LCSC tallied eight runs on eight hits in the sixth and its lead ballooned to 14-1. The Coyotes went through five pitchers in the inning to try to stifle the offense. Unsuccessfully.
The only COI pitcher not to give up a hit or a run was Calvin Euper, who took the mound with two outs in the bottom of the sixth.
Warriors starter Shane Spencer helped keep the Coyotes in check during that run. He struck out 11 College of Idaho batters and let up two hits. Reliever Jace Hanson took the mound in the seventh and helped put the Coyotes (11-26, 2-9) down in order to secure the mercy-rule win.
"I found out that they weren't able to hit the slider," Spencer said. "Slider was working for me today. So I knew I was able to throw it in there for strike one. From there, I was just able to throw anything off of that. I was just watching their body language, the way they put themselves in the box. But it was all about getting strike one. That was the biggest thing."
LCSC's offense the last three games has been a smorgasbord of players out of their usual position becase of injuries. Catcher Bulla Ephan saw time Saturday after missing several games with an injury. Even with the return of the sophomore, there was still a lot of movement in the Warriors' lineup. Thirteen total players had at-bats in Saturday's doubleheader.
"I love it," LCSC senior left fielder Seamons said. "I love the fact that we can kind of plug-and-play with anybody on our roster and anybody in our lineup. It makes it fun. It makes it so that more guys get opportunities. And everybody's pulling for each other, so that's the best part of it. You get to see how excited everybody is when someone does something good and someone has something go their way."
Pitchers continue strong showing in Game 2
Game 2 starter Decker Stedman didn't have a strong start to his outing, but he had a strong ending.
Stedman got out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning. Through Stedman's four innings pitched, COI left six runners on base and mustered just two runs.
The Warriors' offense broke through again in the nightcap. They put up three runs in the fourth to take a 4-2 lead.
Seamons and junior shortstop Dominic Signorelli both had RBI singles to put LCSC in front. A balk by Coyotes pitcher Dawson Cummins brought a runner home and put the Warriors up by two.
LCSC relievers Tucker Grote and Landon Webb took care of business from there. The two pitchers combined to allow four hits, no runs and no walks in their five innings of work.
Grote earned the win, improving his record to 2-0 on the year, and Webb earned the save — his first as a Warrior.
Seamons and junior Charlie Updegrave both had RBI singles in the bottom of the eighth for the final scores of the game.
Warriors getting hot at right time
LCSC's sweep on Saturday gives it another conference series win. It's now solely in the driver's seat in the overall conference standings. A win in Game 4 of the series today would give the Warriors a four-game lead over second-place Oregon Tech.
In that scenario, LCSC would be safe atop the Cascade Conference for at least two weeks.
The Warriors will play a nonconference series against No. 2 LSU-Shreveport next week. The Owls will play a four-game series against Eastern Oregon, also next week. A sweep against the Mountaineers would still have Oregon Tech a half-game behind LCSC in the standings, assuming the Warriors win today.
This would minimize any outside distractions and allow LCSC to focus solely on the Pilots. LSUS might be ranked the No. 1 team in the country by the time it gets to Lewiston based on recent losses suffered by current No. 1 Southeastern.
"It's one of those things where if you keep the right approach and the right mentality and the right pressure that you're applying to the other team, it doesn't matter who you face," Seamons said. "If we execute our approach and our plan the way we want, it doesn't matter who's on the mound. It's going to go the way we want to."
GAME 1
COLLEGE OF IDAHO LEWIS-CLARK STATE
ab r h bi ab r h bi
Stocking ss 3 0 2 0 Booth cf 3 2 2 2
Kelly 3b 3 0 0 0 Seamons lf 3 2 2 3
McFrlnd rf 3 0 0 0 Signorelli ss 2 2 1 2
Smith 1b 3 0 0 0 Updegrave dh 3 0 0 0
Ingraham 2b 3 1 0 0 Sol ph 1 1 1 0
Macy pr 0 0 0 0 De Sa 3b 3 1 1 1
Gaff lf 3 0 1 1 Marquez 1b 3 1 1 0
Ebe cf 2 0 0 0 Overmars 2b 2 1 1 0
Mahlke ph 1 0 0 0 Hofstetter 2b 2 0 1 1
Ephan c 2 0 1 1
Weintraub pr 0 2 0 0
Ymamoto ph 1 0 0 0
Totals 25 1 3 2 Totals 29 14 13 14
College of Idaho 010 000 0— 1 3 2
Lewis-Clark State 002 048 x—14 13 1
College of Idaho ip h r er bb so
Vidlak (L, 3-3) 5.0 5 7 7 2 5
Shirts 0.1 2 3 3 1 0
McDuffie 0.1 1 0 0 1 0
Euper 0.1 0 0 0 0 1
Lewis-Clark State ip h r er bb so
Spencer (W, 3-1) 6.0 3 1 0 2 11
Hanson 1.0 0 0 0 0 1
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GAME 2
COLLEGE OF IDAHO LEWIS-CLARK STATE
ab r h bi ab r h bi
Stocking ss 5 0 1 0 Booth cf 5 1 3 0
Kelly 3b 4 1 1 0 Seamons lf 4 2 2 2
McFrlnd dh 4 1 2 1 Signorelli ss 4 0 1 1
Iwamizu c 4 0 0 0 Cabrera rf 2 0 1 0
Ingraham 2b 4 0 2 0 Updegrave 1b 4 0 1 1
Macy pr 0 0 0 0 Weintraub dh 4 0 0 0
Danner 1b 4 0 2 1 Overmars ph 1 0 0 0
Gaff lf 3 0 1 0 De Sa 3b 3 0 1 0
Mahlke rf 3 0 1 0 Marquez c 4 0 2 0
Watkins cf 3 0 0 0 Ephan c 0 0 0 0
Smith ph 1 0 0 0 Hofstetter 2b 3 0 1 1
Sol pr 0 3 0 0
Totals 35 2 10 2 Totals 34 6 12 5
College of Idaho 200 000 000—2 10 0
Lewis-Clark State 010 300 02x—6 12 0
College of Idaho ip h r er bb so
Cummins (L, 0-6) 7.0 11 6 6 4 6
Durski 11.0 1 0 0 1 0
Lewis-Clark State ip h r er bb so
Stedman 4.0 6 2 2 2 1
Grote (W, 2-0) 3.0 2 0 0 0 1
Webb (S, 1) 2.0 2 0 0 0 3
Kowatsch can be contacted at 208-848-2268, tkowatsch@lmtribune.com or on Twitter @Teren_Kowatsch.
