PORTLAND, Ore.—Lewis & Clark College baseball earned a walk-off win in extra innings in game one to snap a three-game streak and lost a close game two to split their first-ever meetings with UMass Boston on Saturday at Jerry Gatto Field. 

THE BASICS
Lewis & Clark 9, UMass Boston 8 (10 Innings) 
UMass Boston 8, Lewis & Clark 4
(Lewis & Clark 5-7-1) 
(UMass Boston 2-2) 

HOW IT HAPPENED
 
Junior Justin Cavagnaro doubled twice, drove in three runs and scored the game-winning run, to lead the Pioneers to a game one victory. 
 
The Pioneers continued their run of strong defense and pitching and came through with more clutch hits in their seventh and eighth games of the team's 16-game homestand. Junior Luke Ritter turned in his best outing of the season in game two, as the southpaw allowed just four hits, no walks and one earned run in a season-high six innings. 
 
GAME ONE RECAP 
 
Lewis & Clark scored eight-straight runs to grab an 8-2 lead, saw UMass Boston rally back to tie the game in the sixth and then used lockdown relief pitching to improve to 5-4-1 in non-conference play.  
 
After being unavailable last weekend, Cavagnaro made a huge impact in his return to the lineup. Cavagnaro went 2-3 with two runs, three RBI and two walks. Freshmen Gavin Mangano and Michael Aikawa each added two RBI apiece and senior Jakob Ghammachi chipped in two hits, two runs, an RBI and a stolen base. 
 
Senior Brett Pierson allowed five hits, four walks and three earned runs over five innings. Pierson added four strikeouts to go over 175 for his career (178). 
 
Seniors Tyler Shimabukuro and Anthony Clerici came up huge in relief. Shimabukuro went 3.1 scoreless innings and scattered three walks, two hits and struck out two. Clerici earned his first win of the year by throwing a scoreless 10^th inning. 
 
UMass Boston came out of the gate putting pressure on the Pioneers both on the basepaths and with the bats. The Beacons scored runs in each of the first two frames to grab a 2-0 lead after 1.5 innings. Lewis & Clark scored eight runs over the next three innings to take their biggest lead of the season in a home game thus far. 
 
In the second inning, senior John Delaney and Cavagnaro walked to put two on with two outs. After a balk moved both runners up 90 feet, Mangano looped a fly ball into right field that bounced right in front of the diving right fielder to score both runners. 
 
The Pioneers grabbed the lead in the third. Ghammachi opened the inning with an infield single, freshman Brett Potter walked and Delaney was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out. Aikawa drove in Ghammachi from third with a groundout to second. 
 
Lewis & Clark put together their biggest inning of the homestand in the fourth. Facing a Beacons reliever, Lewis & Clark struck for five runs on two hits, two walks and two hit by pitches. Senior Jack Savant opened the inning with a hit by pitch, took second on a sac bunt and raced home on a Ghammachi RBI single to right-center. The Pioneers loaded the bases with one out on a Will Heron hit by pitch and Potter walk. Aikawa made it 5-3 with a bases-loaded walk and Cavagnaro cleared the bases with double to dead-center field that bounced off the wall. 
 
UMass Boston quickly got themselves back into the game. They scored a single run in the top of the fifth and then scored five runs of their own in the sixth to tie the game at 8-8. 
 
From that point on, neither team could come through with a clutch hit against the opposing bullpen. UMass Boston had the best chance to score before extra innings in the eighth inning. Elliot Miles singled with one out, stole second, took third on a groundout and tried to score on a pitch that bounced past the catcher, but Cavagnaro grabbed the ball and then made a diving tag as Miles attempted to jump over him for the third out. 
 
After putting just two base runners on between the fifth and ninth innings, Cavagnaro led off the bottom of the 10^th inning with a double to the wall in left-center. Mangano put down a sac bunt to move him to third and with two down Cavagnaro raced home on a Brandon Gonzaga grounder that was mishandled by the third baseman. 
 
GAME TWO RECAP 
 
The nightcap was a pitcher's duel for the first seven innings with Ritter and Beacons junior Ross Dexter each posting their best performance of the year. 
 
Ritter retired the first nine batters he faced and faced the minimum amount of batters through the first four innings. He allowed just three singles and one double and struck out a season-high four batters. 
 
On the opposite side, Dexter allowed three runs (one earned) and limited the Pioneers to three hits and three walks. The junior righty struck out eight batters. 
 
Heron and Gonzaga each posted two hits apiece. Heron posted a double, a run scored and an RBI and Gonzaga scored a run. Potters scored two of the Pioneers four runs. 
 
Lewis & Clark took the lead in the bottom of the first inning. Gonzaga started the rally with a single up the middle and stole second with two down. Heron made it 1-0 when he ripped a single off the wall in right-center. 
 
UMass Boston managed to tie the game in the top of the sixth. The Beacons put two runners on to start the inning on back-to-back singles. After a 4-6-3 double play ball erased the second runner, pinch runner Nick Farnacci raced home on a wild pitch that bounced back to the backstop to tie the game. 
 
Lewis & Clark immediately grabbed the lead back in the bottom of the inning. With one out, Heron was hit by a pitch and Potter reached on an error by the third baseman that put both runners in scoring position. Cavagnaro hit a deep fly ball to center to score Heron and make it 2-1. The Pioneers made it 3-1 thanks to some strong baserunning of their own. Aikawa walked to put runners on the corners and then forced a throw down to second base that allowed Potter to steal home on a delayed double steal. 
 
UMass Boston grabbed the lead for good in the top of the eighth. The Beacons posted their second five-run inning of the day thanks to five-straight hits with two down. 
 
Lewis & Clark tried to rally in the bottom of the eighth. Potter reached on a hit by pitch and Aikawa walked to put two on with two outs. Sophomore Joaquin Sandoval drove a fly ball over the left-fielder's head to score Potter, but the ball bounced over the fence for a ground-rule double, to deny the Pioneers from cutting the deficit to 6-5. 
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• Saturdays' game one win was the Pioneers first-extra inning win of the season and the first-ever walk-off win at Jerry Gatto Field. 
• In three home games this season, Shimabukuro hasn't allowed a run in seven innings. The senior is sporting a 1.00 ERA in four appearances (nine total innings) this spring. 
• Pierson now sits second in program history in career strikeouts (178). He is 28 strikeouts shy of tying Doug Nichols' ('90) program record. 
• Mangano made a terrific diving catch in game one to deny Ryan Slack of extra-bases. The freshman right fielder made several strong defensive plays in his third-straight start. 
• After giving up at least three extra-base hits and one home run in each of his first three starts, Ritter limited UMass Boston to one extra-base hit (a double) and didn't allow an RBI hit on Saturday. Ritter's six inning outing was his longest since April 8, 2023 against Willamette (8.0, 1 R). 
• Saturday's games were the first-ever contests between the two programs.  

WHO'S NEXT 
 
The Pioneers and Beacons will play the rubber-game of their three-game series on Sunday at Noon.