PORTLAND, Ore.—Lewis & Clark College baseball used a complete team performance, to earn a back-and-forth 7-6 victory over visiting Willamette University on Saturday afternoon at the Huston Sports Complex. 

The Pioneers rallied from deficit of 3-0 and 6-5 to earn their first Northwest Conference home victory of the season. Game two on Saturday was postponed due to heavy rain. 

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KEY MOMENTS

After seeing their 5-4 lead turn into a 6-5 deficit in the top of the seventh, Lewis & Clark scratched across two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to take the lead for good. Tal Jones and Anthony Clerici held it down from there, to help the Pioneers get back to .500 in NWC play (4-4). 

Luke Bass was one of the offensive heroes for the hosts on Saturday. The left fielder went 2-3 with a pair of doubles, two runs scored and an RBI. 

Dylan Moore and Blake Tellinghusen each added a double and two RBI and Jakob Ghammachi scored a pair of runs. 

Brett Pierson fought through control issues to give the Pioneers five important innings. He struck out five, walked seven and allowed four hits and four runs (three earned). 

Willamette scored three runs on two hits and an error in the top of the second inning to grab a 3-0 advantage. 

Lewis & Clark responded back right away, with four of their own against Willamette ace Layton Wagner. 

Bass led off the inning with a double and the Pioneers loaded the bases on back-to-back hit by pitches to Ghammachi and Zack Kon. With one out, Tellinghusen lifted a two-run double down the right field line for his first collegiate extra-base hit. Two batters later, Moore crushed a two-run double to right-center to make it 4-3 Pioneers. 

The hosts added another in the third. Bass was hit by a pitch with one out and raced home on Brennen Davis' two-out RBI double. 

Willamette reliever Chase Banks came on in the fourth and shut down the Lewis & Clark bats, giving the Bearcats a chance to get back in the game. The visitors did just that, as they used a solo home run in the fifth and a pair of RBI singles in the seventh to take a 6-5 lead. 

In the bottom of the inning, Jack Thomson started the rally with a hit by pitch which ended Logan Haslam's day. Willamette brought in their All-Conference closer Brady Joyner but he couldn't slow down the Pioneers. Bass greeted him with an RBI double to the wall in right-center that easily scored Thomson to tie the game. Bass took third on a wild pitch and easily scored on a Kon sacrifice fly. 

Jones allowed a lead-off single and a wild pitch to put the tying run on second with no outs in the top of the eighth. The sophomore settled down from there with back-to-back groundouts and a strike out looking to keep the lead intact. 

In the ninth, Clerici allowed a one-out single but struck out Wagner and then induced a popup to third to seal the victory and earn the save.  

DEEPER LOOK 

• Tellinghusen not only came through with his first extra-base hit, he also threw out two runners trying to steal second base. 
• Lewis & Clark finished with just six hits. The Pioneers did record five walks and four hit by pitches in the victory. 
• Thomson saw his hitting streak come to an end at a dozen games. He did reach base on a hit by pitch and score a run in the win. 
• Tyler Shimabukuro improved to 3-0 after going two innings and allowing two earned runs. 
• Lewis & Clark recorded five hits and five earned runs against Wagner in just three innings. The junior was an All-Region selection last spring. 

WHO'S NEXT 

Lewis & Clark will host Willamette University for two games (11 a.m. and 2 p.m.) on Sunday at George Fox University's Curtis and Margaret Morse Athletic Fields. Both games on Sunday will be conference game's and the originally scheduled fourth game of the series (a non-conference game) is canceled and will not be made up.