Warriors bounce back against British Columbia to regain first-place in CCC
· Yahoo Sports
Apr. 5—Izzy Madariaga was patient.
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Facing a 1-2 count on a spring Saturday that felt like summer at Harris Field, the Lewis-Clark State senior second baseman watched ball two breeze by before proceeding to foul off five of the next seven pitches he saw.
His patience earned him a free pass to first base, where he advanced to second off of senior center fielder Noah Weintraub's single and scored on a base hit by senior Spencer Zeller to put the Warriors up by seven runs against British Columbia in the top of the second.
About 16 hours after falling one run short against their Cascade Conference baseball challenger, the Warriors had already exceeded their series opener's offensive output two innings into their next-day doubleheader, returning to their home ballpark with a clear goal.
Forget about yesterday and attack today.
With a renewed focus, the Warriors beat the Thunderbirds by scores of 15-4 in seven innings and 12-2 in eight innings, each shortened because of the 10-run mercy rule, to leapfrog UBC in the conference standings heading into the Easter Sunday finale at 11 a.m. today.
"I think that's the biggest part of baseball," said Madariaga, who totaled three hits, four RBI, six runs and three walks on the day. "Just forgetting about either your bad at-bat or bad game. Our coach tells us to 'Be where our feet are.' And that's exactly what we did today."
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LC State (28-4, 20-4) holds a one-game lead over UBC (25-10, 19-5), with its offense rolling and its pitching staff excelling in rock-solid starter Landon Webb's stead after he left the game in the second inning because of an injury concern.
A fast start
Against two quality UBC starters, the Warriors matched their intensity after failing to do so for much of Friday's contest, LC State coach Jeremiah Robbins said.
In a pregame conversation, the Warriors' coaches implored them to "(play) for each other and (throw) everything else out the window," said Weintraub, who racked up six total hits, three runs an RBI and a walk during the doubleheader.
"We kind of called them out a little bit," Robbins said. "That's not the way we play here at LC State and they basically woke up. And it's pretty good when they're awake and competing and being great teammates — they can do some special things. So yeah, tip my hat to them."
The Warriors failed to muster a hit until the sixth inning in the series opener Friday and staged a late-inning comeback that fell just short, with the tying run 90 feet from home plate.
Already down 1-0 to open the doubleheader, the Warriors got to work.
Leadoff man Brandon Nguyen took the first pitch he saw into left field, then raced around the basepaths to even the game at 1-1 off of Madariaga's double down the right field line, beating out UBC's excellent relay throw.
Then, senior right fielder Bryce Johnson, Weintraub, sophomore first baseman Sam Weber, Zeller and junior catcher Kooper Jones combined to smack five straight singles before shortstop Payton Smith got aboard and worked his way home on Nguyen's second single of the inning to help the Warriors build a 7-1 lead.
LC State turned its six-run first-inning lead into a 9-1 advantage after two innings and 11-1 after three innings.
A pair of home runs in the fifth inning by Nguyen and Johnson and Danner Salisbury's sixth-inning RBI double — the first hit of his Warrior career — put LC State up 15-1.
The Warriors brought more of the same routine domination to Game 2 of the doubleheader, scoring four runs in both the second and seventh innings.
After UBC scored a pair in the top of the fourth, LC State rattled off six unanswered runs. Similar to their earlier victory, the Warriors relied on simple hitting — smacking seven singles and drawing 11 walks — to reap offensive success.
Robbins said that the key difference between Friday's loss and Saturday's success for the Warriors was their readiness to handle the fastball.
"We're going to get our share of home runs, but when you go up there trying to hit a home run, you're gonna be a dead out," Robbins said. "So they listened. Once again, it's them. I mean, we can tell them all we want, but if they don't go out and execute, it's just words. So they put action to words today."
Webb exits early, O'Neil takes over
Webb, the Warriors' finest pitcher through the front half of the season, appeared to be putting together another decent outing, forcing a comebacker to get out of some trouble in the first inning and inducing another groundout to short to kick off the top of the second before stepping off the mound.
Robbins visited the mound far earlier than anticipated to check in with Webb. The Warriors coach watched Webb throw a practice pitch in which he stumbled off the hill after the throw.
After buying some time for LC State's anticipated fourth game starter, Kason O'Neil, to warm up, Webb, the CCC's ERA and WHIP leader entering the weekend, hung his head and walked to the dugout.
Robbins said that he had not gotten "a complete update" on the nature of Webb's injury but said that the senior experienced tenderness in his lower body and received treatment from the trainers prior to the game.
After experiencing further pain after a pitch in the second inning, the Warriors removed him from the game as a precaution and sent him back to the trainers.
O'Neil, who was supposed to start today's game for the Warriors, navigated five full innings with three earned runs, seven hits and two walks allowed to three strikeouts.
"Just a gutty effort by him," Robbins said of O'Neil. "Just answering the bell, when the bell rings, you answer. And he did that for us and gave us some just huge quality innings and really allowed our hitters to nestle in and then take the pressure off the pitchers where they can breathe a little bit on the mound."
Mason Goodson and Jordan Lennartson handled the latter eight innings, combining for six strikeouts. Lennartson permitted just a single hit as the Warriors cruised to their 14th run-ruled victory of the year.
For the Warriors, Saturday was business as usual against their closest competitor.
"We know what we have on this team talent-wise, so it's just picking each other up every single day," Weintraub said. "One guy doesn't do his job, the next guy's gonna step up and do it."
GAME 1
Lewis-Clark State 15, British Columbia 4
UBC 100 000 3—4 10 2
LCSC 722 031 x—15 19 0
Brock, Duthie (2), Janovsky (5) and Cote and Scott (6); Webb, O'Neil (2), Tatone (7), Perez (7) and Jones.
W — O'Neil (4-0); L — Brock (7-2).
British Columbia hits — Waters 2 (2B), Warrillow 2 (2B), Yip (HR), Bourne (2B), Cote (2B), Sugimoto, Vrlak, Fujiwara.
Lewis-Clark State hits — Nguyen 3 (HR), Johnson 3 (HR), Weintraub 3, Madariaga 2 (2B), Zeller 2, Jones 2, Salisbury (2B), Smith (2B), Wotipka.
GAME 2
Lewis-Clark State 12, British Columbia 2
UBC 000 200 00—2 4 0
LCSC 140 000 43—12 10 1
Chamberlain Moy (7), Myttenar (7), Scott (8) and Yip; Goodson, Lennartston (5) and Ephan.
W — Lennartson (2-0); L — Chamberlain (6-1).
British Columbia hits — Sugimoto, Yip, Waters, Fujiwara.
Lewis-Clark State hits — Weintraub 3, Madariaga (HR), Jackson (2B), Zeller (2B), Johnson, Weber, Westerlund, Ephan.
Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2260, [email protected], or on X or Instagram @Sam_C_Taylor.