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Box Score 2 PORTLAND, ORE.—Lewis & Clark College scored the final five runs in game one to earn a huge comeback win over NWC leaders Pacific Lutheran University and a doubleheader split with the Lutes on Sunday at the Huston Sports Complex.
Senior Jack Thomson hit a game-tying three-run home run in the seventh and junior Blake Tellinghusen delivered the go-ahead, two-out, RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning to secure a huge game one win for the Pioneers.
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KEY MOMENTS GAME ONE: LEWIS & CLARK 8-7
After going down 6-1, Lewis & Clark scored six of the final seven runs, including five in their final two at-bats to stun the Lutes.
Brennen Davis led the Pioneers out of the leadoff spot with three hits, two runs scored and a pair of leadoff doubles. Thomson finished 1-2 with a run scored, three RBI, a walk, a hit by pitch and a home run.
Will Heron (2-4 with two runs scored) and Jack Savant (2-4, with one run and two RBI) each contributed two hits and a double in the win.
Junior Brayden Nomura earned his first collegiate win after throwing 2.2 innings of scoreless relief. Nomura allowed just one hit and one walk and stranded a pair of inherited baserunners in the sixth.
Sophomore Anthony Clerici came on in the ninth and worked around a leadoff walk to tie the program record with his fifth save in a single-season.
Lewis & Clark opened the scoring in the contest. Davis led off the bottom of the first with a double and the Pioneers loaded the bases on back-to-back walks to Thomson and Luke Bass. Zack Kon followed with an RBI single, but Pacific Lutheran got out of the jam with an inning-ending double play.
After a strong first 2.2 innings, Pacific Lutheran got to Pioneers starter Brett Pierson in the third. They scored six runs on five hits, including a pair of home runs.
The Pioneers began to chip away at the deficit right away. Davis delivered another leadoff double and Savant plated him with a single to left-center.
In the fourth inning, Heron opened the frame with a double and scampered home on a Casey Parsons RBI groundout.
With the Pioneers traveling 7-3 in the seventh, Lewis & Clark scored four runs to tie the contest. Parsons started the inning with a single and Tellinghusen followed with a walk. With one down, Savant doubled down the left field line to plate Parsons. The Lutes went to their bullpen and Thomson greeted Alex Gregory with a three-run blast down the right field line that just stayed fair.
Lewis & Clark took the lead for good in the eighth. Heron opened the inning with a single and raced all the way over to third on an errant pick-off throw. After back-to-back strikeouts, Tellinghusen took a 1-2 pitch and laced it up the middle to score Heron and make it 8-7.
Clerici walked the leadoff batter in the ninth but then retired the next three batters he faced to secure a huge conference win.
KEY MOMENTS GAME TWO: PACIFIC LUTHERAN 13-7
This time it would be Pacific Lutheran's turn to rally from an early deficit. Lewis & Clark went out to a 3-0 lead, but the Lutes used two big innings to take control and never looked back.
Thomson and Kon paced the Pioneers in the loss. Thomson went 2-3 with three runs, one RBI, two walks, a hit by pitch and two extra-base hits. Kon finished 2-4 with one run, three RBI, one walk and his fourth long ball of the year.
Freshman Luke Ritter took the loss after allowing six hits and seven runs (four earned) over five-plus innings. Out of the bullpen, Cristian Panaro and Kevin Kale each threw a scoreless inning of relief.
Lewis & Clark scored in each of their first three at-bats.
In the first inning, Thomson walked, took second on a wild pitch and scored on a Bass RBI single. The Pioneers made it 2-0 in the second on freshman catcher Justin Cavagnaro's first collegiate home run. Thomson tacked on a third run in the third, when his screaming line drive to right-center bounced off the scoreboard for his 12th home run of the year.
The Lutes grabbed the lead in the fourth on back-to-back pitches. Ashley Barton singled to center field to plate two runs and Braeden Lundberg jumped on the next pitch for a two-run single to give the visitors a 4-3 edge.
Pacific Lutheran put the game away in the sixth. They sent 13 batters to the plate and scored eight runs on seven hits and one error, to amass a 12-3 lead.
The Pioneers closed out the scoring in the ninth. With the bases loaded and one out, Bass just got under a fly ball to right that ended up being a sacrifice fly to score Mason Lee. Kon made the Lutes pay with a three-run blast to left field to account for the final 13-7 score.
DEEPER LOOK
- Lewis & Clark's defense turned five double plays on the afternoon.
- Thomson is now one double away from tying the program record for doubles in a single-season. Matt Donovan set the program record with 17 doubles in 2018. Thomson also sits tied for third in program history for home runs in a single-season (12) and is just three shy of tying the record.
- Pacific Lutheran received 24 votes in this week's D3Baseball.Com Top-25 Poll.
- Clerici is now in a four-way tie for first in saves in a single-season. He matched Austin Conniff, Nate Ulbricht and Steve Dawson's single-season mark. Clerici is also just three career saves shy of Conniff ('19) and Joel Johnson's ('88) mark (nine saves).
- The Pioneers snapped a four-game losing streak against the Lutes with their game-one win. It marked Lewis & Clark's first win over Pacific Lutheran since the 2019 season (3-1 season-series win).
- Heron recorded his first collegiate extra-base hit (a double) in game one.
WHO'S NEXT
The two teams will return to Huston Sports Complex on Sunday at Noon for the rubber match. Pacific Lutheran currently leads the Northwest Conference (9-5) and Lewis & Clark is sitting in sixth-place (8-9) with seven conference games to play.
