LEWISTON, Idaho – Senior Brock Ephan continued his heating tear and the pitching staff allowed only seven hits and one run on the day to help the ninth-ranked Lewis-Clark State College Baseball team sweep a Cascade Collegiate Conference doubleheader from outmanned Eastern Oregon University 12-1 and 10-0 at Harris Field Saturday afternoon.
Both games were stopped early because of the 10-run rule.
Ephan hit a pair of home runs in the first game to give him a team-leading eight on the year and he finished the doubleheader 4-for-7 with seven RBI and three runs scored. In his last six games, the first baseman and designated hitter is 10-for-22 with 15 RBI and 15 runs scored.
LC State, which stretched its win streak to 11 games, improved to 20-2 overall and 13-1 in conference play, while Eastern Oregon fell to 3-11 and 3-15. The Warriors have a 5½-game lead in the conference standings over Oregon Tech.
The Warriors and Eastern Oregon complete the four-game series with another doubleheader on Sunday, starting at 11 a.m. The two games will bring the first half of the conference season to a close. LC State will then have four games apiece against the four remaining league teams in the second half of league play.
GAME 1: LC State def . EOU 12-1 (seven innings)
Ephan clubbed a pair of two-run home runs in the contest off EOU pitcher Kyle Lund to mark the fourth straight game he has homered in. Only two other Warriors have ever accomplished the feat, the last being Seth Brown in 2015. Brown is now playing with the Oakland Athletics.
“I saw the guy (Lund) was keying on his change up so I figured get it up and see how far I could hit it,” said Ephan, who finished the contest 2-for-3 with four RBI and three runs scored. “I’m just seeing the ball really well and trying to stay in my zone.”
“He is a really good player,” LC Coach Jake Taylor said of Ephan. “He’s mature. He has an idea of what he is good at and what he wants to swing at. He and a couple of other guys have it going in the right direction.”
The Warriors had everything going in the right direction Saturday.
LC jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the third. Sam Linscott reached second on a dropped fly ball and Riley Way followed with a walk. After a wild pitch moved them up a base, A.J. Davis brought in the first run with a sacrifice fly, while Way scored on a triple by Jack Johnson. Ephan followed with a two-run blast to left field, receiving the green light to swing on a three-ball no-strike pitch.
After Eastern Oregon scored a run in the top of the fourth on an RBI by Elliott Marks, who once played the national anthem on a violin at the Avista NAIA World Series, the Warriors responded with five more in the fifth. Johnson started the rally with a single and Ephan crushed a two-run shot to left-center field over the fence. Aidan Nagle and Davis added RBI singles, while Linscott managed to steal home.
The Warriors pushed across three more in the sixth for a 12-1 advantage. Ephan led off with a walk and Nagle later singled. After a strikeout, Linscott smacked a two-run triple and then scored on an errant pickoff attempt.
Johnson, Nagle, Ephan and Linscott had two hits apiece as the Warriors finished with 11.
LC starting pitcher Tallon Thompson went the required five innings to pick up the win and improve to 5-0 on the season. He allowed four hits and two walks, and struck out three. Brooks Juhasz pitched the final two innings and allowed one hit and struck out two.
“Tallon wasn’t as sharp as he wanted to be, but we still had good pitching all day,” Taylor said.
GAME 2: LC State def. EOU 10-0 (eight innings)
While Ephan’s consecutive-game home run streak came to an end, he still collected two hits and drove in three runs.
Davis, Dillon Plew, Johnson and Ephan, the numbers 2-5 hitters in the lineup, each had two hits and combined to drive in seven runs. LC scored its first nine runs all with two outs.
“That is something we obviously focus on and work on our two-out hitting,” Taylor said. “We are having quality at-bats with runners in scoring position.”
Trent Sellers, Alec Holmes and Cameron Smith combined on a two-hitter for LC. Sellers picked up the win to go to 3-1 on the season. He allowed the two hits over the first five innings and did walk six, but also struck out nine. Smith and Holmes both pitched an inning apiece.
LC got on the scoreboard in the first inning with a pair of runs. Plew and Johnson hit consecutive singles and Ephan followed with a two-run double to right.
The Warriors stretched it to 7-0 in the second as after two strikeouts, the next six Warriors all reached base. Way started the scoring with an RBI double and scored on a double by Davis. Johnson later added a two-run double and scored on a single by Ephan.
After a bases-loaded walk to Plew in the third made it 8-0, LC added a run in the sixth on an RBI single by Nagle.
In the bottom of the eighth, singles by Coy Stout and Dalton Harum, and a walk to Nagle loaded the bases with one out. Zach Threlfall was then hit by a pitch to force in a run and end the game because of the 10-run rule.
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