Pioneer LogLewis & Clark College’s Student-Run Newspaper

Baseball holds 2-4 in NWC

March 12, 2010

by Michael G. Richman

Another weekend series and yet another tough loss to swallow. Pioneer baseball dropped two of three to Willamette over the weekend, and fell to 3-7 overall and 2-4 in the Northwest Conference.
After winning the first game of the three-game set, the Pios lost the final two on the road and failed to win a series for the third consecutive weekend.

In the rubber match on Sunday, Lewis & Clark jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Sami Morgan (’10) homered in the top of first.

The game was tied at five after six innings, but the Pios couldn’t hold off the Willamette bats in the late innings. LC came up empty in the top of the seventh and the Bearcats countered with two runs in the bottom half of the inning to take a 7-5 lead heading into the eighth.

LC got one back in the eighth to trim the lead to 7-6. Tucker Laurence (’11) singled to right center to lead off the inning. Laurence advanced to third on a ground out and a wild pitch and then scored on a single by Jim Bray (‘10).

Unfortunately, the Willamette bats came alive in the bottom half of the eighth. The Bearcats scored four times in the inning, three of which came with two outs.

LC could only muster one run in the ninth. Morgan had an RBI single to right, but was left stranded at second as the game ended, along with the hopes for a NWC series win for the Pios.

On Saturday, the Pios split the double header against Willamette. LC scored two runs in the seventh and another four in the eighth of the second game, but the late surge wasn’t enough. The Pios lost 10-8, failing to capitalize on what would have amounted to a three-game winning streak against NWC opponents. In the first game of the series against Willamette, LC got a gem of a pitching performance from Alex St. Pierre (’11). St. Pierre pitched seven solid innings, giving up three runs on seven hits. He struck out eight and walked three in the victory. Pierre blanked Willamette for the first six innings, but gave up three in the seventh before exiting the game.

LC had a six run lead heading into the seventh and held off a fierce Willamette comeback to win its second straight game 6-4.

Michael Ball (’12), who homered in game’s first at-bat, came in the eighth to close the game in a five-out save.

It was the Pios’ first win of the season that didn’t go to extra innings, and easily the best pitching performance from a starter that the team has seen all season.