Baseball evens series with UBC behind big days from Barnett, Smith Jr.
Zachary Shore, LCSC
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The top-ranked Lewis-Clark State College baseball team fought through a torrential downpour at Thunderbird Park to even the series with the University of British Columbia with a 5-2 victory on Saturday afternoon.
LCSC third baseman Robert Smith Jr. (SR/Fremont, Calif.) had a monster day, going 4-for-5 at the plate with a pair of doubles, three runs and an RBI. On the mound, Jake Barnett (JR/San Diego, Calif.) improved to 3-0 with five innings of one-run ball, scattering three hits with three walks and a pair of strikeouts.
The teams traded sacrifice flies in the first two innings and remained a 1-1 tie until the fifth when J.J. Robinson (JR/Colfax, Wash.) and Smith again teamed up to put the Warriors (15-2, 6-2) ahead. The Warriors designated hitter, Robinson followed Smith's double with one of his own to make it a 2-1 game.
The weather forced a pair of rain delays in the fifth and the seventh, but LCSC remained unfazed.
LC State got on the board again in the seventh with Smith and Robinson again in on the action. Smith got the inning going with a two-out double and the Thunderbirds (2-8, 6-2) elected to walk Robinson. Tyler McDowell (SO/Puyallup, Wash.) got hit by a pitch and a walk to Gunnar Buhner (JR/Issaquah, Wash.) plated Smith to add to the lead.
Lewis-Clark State loaded the bases for the second time in the eighth and it was Smith who delivered the big hit, singling to right field to plate Micah Brown (SO/Medord, Ore.), who was one of three walks in the inning. A two-out wild pitch with the bases loaded plated Logan Griffin (JR/Apple Valley, Calif.) for the Warriors fifth run.
Henry McAree, who relieved Barnett, ran into trouble in the bottom of the frame as he allowed a leadoff walk and a single to put runners at the corners and just one out. Head Coach Jeremiah Robbins called on Gunnar Swanson (SR/Duvall, Wash.) to get out of the inning and he induced a groundball to second, but the Warriors couldn't turn the double play, allowing a run to score. A walk brought the tying run to the plate, but Swanson escaped the jam.
Noel Gonzalez (JR/Naches, Wash.) was called on in the ninth and worked around a bases-loaded, two-out jam to earn his third save of the season.
Robinson finished the game 1-for-3 with two RBI while three other Warriors helped account for the teams' eight hits.
UBC starter Curtis Taylor took the loss allowing two runs on five hits in five innings.
The rubber game of the series will take place tomorrow, March 13 with first place in the NAIA West on the line. First pitch is scheduled for 11 AM PST. Live stats of the game are available here with live audio provided by KOZE-Sports.