LEWISTON – The No. 2 LC State Baseball team found a way to win on Saturday in two very different games of a twin bill against the College of Idaho. Game one featured 17 Warrior hits in a lopsided win, while LC took advantage of C of I pitching troubles in a 10-run fourth inning.
LC State took the contests by finals of 14-6 and 15-11. With the wins, the Warriors are 9-3 on the season. The series is a non-conference set.
GAME ONE: No. 2 LC State def. College of Idaho 14-6
An acrobatic dive at the plate by Nick Seamons gave the Warriors an early lead in the first game of the day. Seamons drew a walk to lead off the inning before coming around and diving around the catcher on a double by Isaiah Thomas. Pu’ukani De Sa singled to put two on before Thomas came home on a balk by C of I starter Nick Eliason to make it 2-0.
The Yotes answered with a run on a pair of hits in the top of the second to cut the lead to 2-1. Trevin Hope ended the inning with a punchout, but C of I struck for one more to tie the game in the third.
LC State regained the lead in home half of the third. Eric Mast sparked the offense with a single through the right side and Dominic Signorelli walked to put two on. Carter Booth moved both over with a sacrifice bunt and Leo Rivera put the Warriors up 4-2 with a two-RBI double.
C of I threatened in the fourth but another strikeout by Hope brought LC back to the plate.
Thomas opened the bottom of the fourth with a hit-by-pitch before taking second on a wild pitch. A single by Sam Olsson moved him to third and a bad pickoff attempt brought the run across. Signorelli blasted his first home run of the season to push the advantage to 7-2 through four innings.
An error by the LC State defense allowed Kris Kirkpatrick to come to the plate with two on and cut the deficit to 7-5 with a three-run homer, but the Warriors quickly answered in the fifth.
Isaac Haws doubled and Seamons singled to put two on. Thomas brought both in with a triple off the base of the wall in left center to push the lead back out to 9-5. Another balk brought in Thomas to make it 10-5.
C of I’s Skyler Sadora brought in Johan Hultberg with an RBI knock in the sixth, and the Warriors got the run back and more in the home half.
Booth and Rivera tallied back-to-back singles, but a runner was erased on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Haws. Seamons and Thomas notched consecutive doubles to plate a pair, and De Sa kept the two-out rally going with an RBI single up the middle. LC State led 14-6 after six innings.
Greg Blackman and Zachary Ediger combined to close out the game.
“We were able to get timely hits and ended up doing quite a bit of offensive damage with two outs,” Head Coach Jake Taylor said. “GT (Blackman) and Ediger were both solid out of the pen to hold C of I down.”
Thomas went 4-for-5 in the contest with four runs scored and four RBI. Seamons, De Sa, Signorelli and Rivera each tallied two hits.
Hope earned the win after striking out five in five innings. Blackman fanned three in three innings and Ediger struck out one in his lone inning.
GAME TWO: No. 2 LC State def. College of Idaho 15-11
C of I gained the early advantage with a seven-run second inning, and LC State responded with four in the bottom of the inning. Olsson started the inning with a single and Signorelli, Mast, Jakob Marquez, Haws and Seamons combined for five straight hits to cut into the Yote lead. A wild pitch plated one more to make it 7-4 through two innings.
The Yotes struck for another three runs in the top of the third but ran into pitching struggles in the fourth when the Warriors put up a 10 spot. Mast led off the inning with a single before five straight free passes produced three LC State runs. Olsson, Signorelli and Mast singled to bring in four more and tie the game 10-10.
With the base loaded, Marquez stepped to the plate and launched LC’s first grand slam of the season to put the Warriors up 14-10 in the fourth.
Both teams scored in the sixth, with LC State doing so on an RBI single by Seamons to make the score 15-11.
Decker Stedman and Eli Shubert combined to throw the final six innings and allowed one run. The pair struck out six. Stedman earned the win and Shubert got the save.
“It was nice to see us fight back from two large deficits in the game,” Taylor said. “We were able to capitalize on their (C of I) free passes and it turned into a big inning. Decker and Shubert were great out of the pen.”
Mast led game two with three hits and Seamons, Olsson, Signorelli and Marquez each had two. Marquez knocked in five runs in the contest.
UP NEXT
The series with College of Idaho continues on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Harris Field.
Stay up to date on all things Warrior Athletics at lcwarriors.com or on social media @LCWarriors.
