LEWISTON, Idaho—The Concordia baseball team dropped a pair of games at the highly competitive Lewis-Clark State Tournament on Friday.
 
Concordia (1-3) opened play at the tournament with a disappointing 20-3 loss to No. 20 British Columbia (2-0), then capped the night with a tight 7-3 loss to No. 11 Lewis-Clark State (3-2).
 
Concordia will continue play at the tournament tomorrow, Feb. 11 at 10 a.m. against the George Fox Bruins. George Fox lost 9-8 to British Columbia in their lone game on Friday.
 
CONCORDIA VS NO. 20 BRITISH COLUBMIA

Ironically, considering what was coming, the first inning against British Columbia went perfectly for the Cavs.
 
Pitcher Mitch Ludtke struck out the side in the top of the first before senior Sean Myrom blasted a three run home run in the bottom of the inning to give the Cavs a quick 3-0 lead.
 
The Cavs then kept the lead through three innings with Ludtke retiring nine of the first 10 batters he faced. In addition, Myrom and the offense nearly struck again in the bottom of the third, but the senior got thrown out at the plate trying to advance three bases on a throwing error to first from the British Columbia pitcher.
 
After that, British Columbia broke the game wide open in the top of the fourth, scoring eight runs in the inning off just three hits. British Columbia didn't stop there, though, tacking on two runs in the fifth, seven runs in the sixth and three more runs in the seventh. By then, British Columbia led comfortably at 20-3 and cruised through the final two and a half innings to the victory.
 
Meanwhile, the Cavs got runners in scoring position during three other innings, but could not bring another run across.
 
On the mound, Ludtke received the loss for the Cavs, while British Columbia's David Otterman got the win.
 
Offensively, Myrom finished the game 1-for-3, while Mike Cero also went 1-for-3. Keeker and Mike Dickman each went 1-for-2 from the plate to round out the Cavs hits in the game.
 
CONCORDIA VS NO. 11 LEWIS-CLARK STATE

With the blowout behind them, Concordia proved resilient in their second game, challenging host Lewis-Clark State.
 
The Cavs showed their resiliency when, down 4-1 in the top of the fifth, Nathan Douglas started a rally with a led off triple down the right field line. After that, Calvin Nagy got hit by a pitch to take first before a ground out from Jordan Keeker move Nagy to second and scored Douglas. Carl Beckert then moved Nagy over to third with another ground out until a wild pitch one batter later brought Nagy home.
 
That brought the Cavs back within a single run at 4-3 and the team would challenge again the next time up. Mike Cero began the threat in the top of the six with a one-out single through the left side of the infield.  Cero then advanced to second on another ground out before moving to third on a balk. However, the Cavs could not bring him around and they remained one run down.
 
However, Lewis-Clark State followed that with a run in the bottom of the six, then another two in the bottom of the seventh to go up 7-3.
 
Sheldon Austria gave the Cavs one last chance with a two-out double to right center in the top of the eighth, but again the team could not get him around.
 
Overall, the Cavs stranded eight runners in the game, six of which were in scoring position.
 
Concordia's Eric Weir ended up with the loss, while Lewis-Clark State starter Carsen Nylund got the win.
 
Individually, Austria led the offense for the Cavs, going 2-for-4, while Beckert, Cero, Ben Talbot and Douglas each added hits as well.