CALDWELL, Idaho – Brock Ephan hit a pair of home runs as Lewis-Clark State swept The College of Idaho in a Saturday doubleheader at Wolfe Field.
The No. 9-ranked Warriors (17-2, 10-1 CCC) ran their win streak to eight with the 12-4 and 8-3 victories.
LCSC used a 6-run fifth inning to break a 1-1 tie in the opener, while Warrior pitchers retired 18-of-19 batters at one streak of Game 2.
Ephan gave LC the lead in Game 1 with a long second inning homer, but the Yotes (13-17, 5-10) manufactured a run in the third – as
Ryan Nolan singled and scored on an
Austin Van Horne sacrifice fly to even the score.
Connor Root was solid through four innings, but the visitors got to the right-hander in the fifth – as a Dillon Plew 2-run single and a Luke White 2-run homer capped the 6-run inning. After C of I took advantage of a 2-out dropped fly ball to score two and
Weston Miller drove home a run to cut the margin to 7-4.
However, LCSC strung together five hits in the seventh – including RBI singles from Aidan Nagle and Riley Way, to break the game open.
Nolan and Miller had two hits for C of I, while Plew went 4-for-6 with three RBI for LCSC.
In the nightcap, both teams scored in the first – as the Warriors scored on a 2-out C of I error, and the Yotes evening the score on a
Matthew Clay RBI double.
However, three LCSC pitcher would limit C of I to just one base runner over the next seven innings, while the Warriors offense awoke. A Nagle 2-run double in the third gave the visitors the lead, while an Ephan 2-run shot in the fifth extended the lead to 8-1.
Clay had two doubles and
Jonah Hultberg had two hits for C of I in the loss. Reliever
Jaden Trueblood had his best outing of the season, tossing four shutout innings of relief.
The two teams close out the weekend series tomorrow with an 11 a.m. match-up.
