PORTLAND, Ore.—Senior Brett Pierson put together the best outing of his career and Lewis & Clark College baseball's bats broke out in a big way in a 12-1 win over Vassar College on Friday afternoon. 
 
THE BASICS
Lewis & Clark 12, Vassar 1
(Lewis & Clark 6-8-1) 
(Vassar 2-7)

HOW IT HAPPENED
 
Playing on the nicest day of the spring thus far, Pierson spun an absolute gem to set several career records. The senior struck out a career-high 13 batters over a career-long eight innings. After allowing a single and an unearned run in the first inning, the senior ace retired 23 batters in a row to finish off his outing. 
 
Freshman Connor Buchbinder closed out the one-hitter - which was the Pioneers best pitching performance in recent memory. Buchbinder struck out the first batter of the ninth to cap off a run of 24-consecutive batters retired. 
 
Offensively, Lewis & Clark posted season-highs in hits (14), run scored (12) and runs batted in (10) to snap a two-game losing streak. Five different Pioneers recorded multiple hits in the win and nine players scored at least one run. 
 
Senior Jakob Ghammachi went 3-5 with a run scored, three RBI and the big hit of the game: a two-run homer in the third inning to make it 5-1. 
 
Senior Jack Savant added three hits in four at-bats, to go along with a team-high three runs scored and two RBI. Sophomore Ryan Sanderson earned his first start of the year and went 2-4 with a run scored and two RBI. Sophomore Brandon Gonzaga and freshman Bret Potter each added two hits, a run scored and a run batted in. 
 
Vassar used several perfectly placed balls to score their long run of the contact. With one out, Ricardo Reyna reached on a softly hit ball back towards the mound that Pierson threw away. Reid Lapekas followed with a soft flare into the Bermuda Triangle in right field to put runners on the corners. Pierson would get the next batter to fly out to left field for a sacrifice fly and wouldn't allow another baserunner from there. 
 
The Pioneers needed just five batters to tie the game and six to take the lead for good. Savant led off the bottom of the first with a first-pitch single, took second on a balk and sophomore Will Heron worked a 10-pitch walk to put two runners on with two down. Potter flared a shallow fly to center field that fell perfectly between the second baseman and center fielder for an RBI double. Sanderson followed with a hard-hit single to right field to score Heron and Potter that made it 3-1. 
 
Pierson would ensure the lead would hold up as he struck out the side in the third inning and 10 out 13 batters between the final batter of the first inning and the end of the fifth. Savant made the biggest defensive play to keep the streak going in the top of the second, when the second baseman ranged behind second base and made a strong throw to retire the leadoff batter.
 
Lewis & Clark added some insurance runs in the bottom of the third. Gonzaga reached on an error to lead off the frame and Ghammachi obliterated a home run well over the left-field fence to make it 5-1. That would spark a run of three-consecutive innings where the Pioneers scored multiple runs. 
 
In the fourth, Gonzaga provided a sac fly to score freshman Gavin Mangano and two more runs came in on a Ghammachi infield single that saw the fielder the ball thrown away. 
 
The Pioneers tacked on four more runs in the fifth. Each of the first three batters reached on two singles and a walk. Vassar starter Michael Came induced a fielder's choice to the next batter that wiped out the lead runner and retired Michael Aikawa on an RBI grounder to short to nearly get out of the jam. Savant followed with a two-run single to score Justin Cavagnaro and Mangano and Gonzaga and Ghammachi greeted the reliever with back-to-back singles to make it 12-1. 
 
In the ninth, Buchbinder loaded the bases with a walk, hit by pitch and walk, but he settled down and posted a strikeout looking to end the frame and the game. 
 
BY THE NUMBERS
 

• Pierson's 13 strikeouts are not only a career-high but the most by a Pioneers pitcher since Ryan Strombom struck out 13 against Pacific on March 15, 2015. The senior's previous career-high was 10 strikeouts against Cal Tech as a freshman in 2021. 
• Freshman catcher Evyn Lewis posted his first collegiate hit in a pinch-hitting appearance in the eighth inning. 
• The Pioneers 15 strikeouts as a staff were their most since April 19, 2022 when Lewis & Clark struck out 17 against George Fox University. 
• Sanderson's hits on Friday were his first two of his season. 
• Lewis & Clark's one hit allowed was their fewest since giving up two hits to Whitworth University on March 15, 2020 (2-0 Whitworth win). 
• Friday's matchup was the first-ever meeting between the two schools. 
• Pierson went over 200 career innings (206.2) on Friday afternoon in his 40^th collegiate start. He sits second in program history in career strikeouts (191) and is now 15 strikeouts shy of tying Doug Nichols ('90) for the program record (206).  

WHO'S NEXT 
 
Lewis & Clark will finish off their final non-conference series of the season on Saturday when they host Vassar for a doubleheader at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Game one is scheduled to only go seven innings, with the night cap going nine.