CALDWELL, Idaho –
Cole Mansanarez had a combined five hits,
Austin Van Horne tied a school record with two triples and the College of Idaho clinched the No. 2 seed at next week's NAIA West Championships with a doubleheader sweep of British Columbia at Wolfe Field.
The Yotes (21-25, 14-15) used a five-run sixth inning to take the opener, a suspended game from last month in Vancouver, 9-7, while
Anthony Martine handcuffed UBC for eight innings in the late contest in a 6-3 victory.
C of I secured their 31st-straight 20-win season with the win in Game 1, while relegating Oregon Tech to the third-seed in the postseason tournament with the Game 2 win. The two victories ended a four-game Coyote losing streak.
The T-Birds (28-14, 18-11) led 4-3 after four innings on March 26 before rains halted play – with the Coyotes jumping on UBC all-star righty Connor Noble from the outset of the action resuming today. Mansanarez got C of I even in the fifth with a two-out RBI single, while an inning later, the Yotes batted around for five runs – Van Horne delivering an RBI triple to give the hosts the lead;
Dalton Ridgway driving a run in with a bloop single;
Sam Grise roping an RBI double to left; with
Johnny Hyland and Mansanarez adding run scoring base hits – extending the lead to 9-4.
Niall Manning worked four solid innings before allowing the first two men in the ninth to reach. Enter
Bobby Wright, who worked around a walk and an error to get the final three outs to notch his ninth career save.
Van Horne was 3-for-4 – recording a triple in both halves of the game – joining Scott Skeen, Izaac Garsez and Kurt Alderman as the only C of I players with two triples in a game. Mansanarez and Grise added two hits – with the Coyotes logging nine of their 10 hits in today's action.
Mitch Robinson was 3-for-5 with a double for UBC, with Noble recording his first loss of 2017, allowing six runs on nine hits in five innings.
The Coyotes never trailed in Game 2 – plating three-second inning runs while holding off a late T-Bird rally.
Ryan Murkle got the hosts on the board with an RBI ground out, with Hyland beating out a two-out infield single to make it 2-0. Mansanarez lined a run-scoring single to right to cap the big inning.
Martine was outstanding, retiring 13-straight batters at one point, before UBC scratched across an unearned run on a Mackenzie Parlow infield out in the seventh. The Yotes answered back in the bottom of the frame with a Mansanarez opposite field home run and an unearned run off a passed ball, pushing the lead to 6-1 in the eighth on a Wright sacrifice fly.
Things got dicey in the ninth, as a walk and two singles loaded the bases – chasing Martine. However,
Miles Bigelow worked around a John Whaley two-run single by striking out three T-Birds to recording his first save of the year.
Hyland and Mansanarez each had three hits for C of I, with Wright and
Dominic Conigliaro each adding two knocks. Martine allowed just five hits and struck out six in earning his sixth win.
Whaley and Vinny Martin each had two hits for the T-Birds, with lefty Niall Windeler allowing three runs on nine hits in the losing effort.
The two teams continue their weekend series tomorrow with a 1 p.m. doubleheader.
