Warriors fall, advance to championship on Friday
Bert Sahlberg, LCSC
LEWISTON, Idaho – J.J. Robinson drove in two runs and the Lewis-Clark State College baseball team collected 10 hits, but it wasn’t enough as Bellevue University kept its season alive with an 8-5 victory in the 60th annual Avista NAIA World Series at Harris Field on Wednesday night.
Bellevue’s victory left three teams with one loss remaining in the tournament after Faulkner eliminated Tennessee Wesleyan 4-3 in 11 innings in Wednesday’s first contest. Because all three remaining teams have had a bye, Lewis-Clark State, as the final team that was undefeated in the 10-team double-elimination tournament, will get the bye into Friday’s championship game. That means third-seed Bellevue (54-11) will face top seed Faulkner (52-14) at 6:35 p.m. on Thursday with the winner advancing to Friday’s championship game, also at 6:35 p.m., against fourth-seeded Lewis-Clark State (51-8).
Eight of the Warriors nine starting position players collected a hit on the night, including Robinson who finished 1-for-4 with two RBI and a walk while Gunnar Buhner and Logan Griffin each collected a pair of hits.
LCSC took the early lead, but it was all Bellevue after that.
The Warriors jumped on Bellevue starter Ben McKendall for two runs in the top of the first. Griffin started the game with a single and Robert Smith Jr. followed with a walk. Both came in on a double by Robinson.
Bellevue scored the next six runs with solo runs in the second and third, and then four more in the fourth. Joe Mancuso reached on an error in the Bruins’ second and scored on a double by Matt Evans, while Trevor Jones singled and scored in the third on a single by Joe Moran.
Bellevue broke the 2-2 tie with a four-run fourth. A double by Jake Browne and walks to Connor Garrison and Jones loaded the bases with two outs. Ross Feeley singled off the glove of LCSC reliever David Wilson to score Browne. Moran followed with a double to left-center that cleared the bases when the LC left fielder couldn’t cleanly handle the ball.
The Warriors got two back in the top of the fifth to cut the lead to 6-4. Smith started the rally with a single and moved to third on a single by Jacob Zanon. A wild pitch then scored Smith, while pinch-hitter Dylan Tashjian’s grounder scored Zanon. Tashjian now has five RBI in his three pinch-hit at-bats in the Series.
The Warriors threatened in the sixth as they loaded the bases after two were out, but reliever Kevin Rodriguez stuck out Zanon to end the threat.
Bellevue made it 7-4 in the bottom of the sixth. Garrison singled with one out, stole second, and scored on a single by Jones.
LCSC answered with a run in the top of the seventh as Tyler McDowell drew a two-out walk and went to second on Cabe Reiten’s single. Buhner followed with a ground-rule double that scored McDowell. A hit batter loaded the bases, but Griffin grounded out to end the threat.
Bellevue added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth on a double by Garrison, who moved to third on a sacrifice bunt. He then scored on Ross Feeley’s sacrifice fly.
Moran, Jones and Feeley, the top three hitters in the Bruins’ lineup, all had strong games at the plate. Moran went 2-for-5 with three RBI, Jones was 2-for-3 with two runs scored and an RBI, while Feeley was 1-for-2 with two RBI and a run scored.
Thursday’s matchup will be only the second time that Bellevue and Faulkner have faced off. The other time was during the 1997 regular season with Bellevue claiming a 9-4 victory.
Lewis-Clark State will be playing in its 20th national championship game on Friday night. The Warriors have won an NAIA record 17 titles, including the 2015 crown, and have finished second twice. LCSC has an overall series record of 136-45.
Thursday’s contest will be shown live on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app.
The Avista-NAIA Baseball World Series is a 10-team, double-elimination event hosted by Lewis-Clark State (Idaho). For more information on the 60th annual event, click HERE.