PORTLAND, Ore.—Lewis & Clark College baseball clawed their way back from an 11-3 deficit but their comeback fell just short, as the Pacific University Boxers held on an 11-7 win in game one of their Northwest Conference series. 
 
THE BASICS
Pacific 11, Lewis & Clark 7
(Lewis & Clark 16-14, NWC 8-8) 
(Pacific 12-13, NWC 12-7) 

HOW IT HAPPENED
 
First year reliever Dillon Foster put together the best outing of his collegiate career to give the Pioneers a shot at a comeback. Lewis & Clark scored the final four runs of the contest and brought the tying run to the on-deck circle in the ninth. 
 
Foster threw a career-high 4.2 innings and allowed just one unearned run. After senior Luke Ritter struggled against the Boxers early, Foster held the visitors to four hits, no walks and struck out two. 
 
Senior Brennen Davis led the Pioneers offensive attack with three extra-base hits. The center fielder went 3-4 with three runs scored, an RBI, two doubles and a solo home run. 
 
Sophomore Michael Aikawa added two hits in four trips to the plate, two RBI and a double. Junior Brandon Gonzaga was the third Pioneer to finish with multiple hits. He recorded two hits, a run scored and an RBI in five trips to the plate. 
 
Friday's opener started off with the teams trading lots of runs early. The Boxers scored runs in their first five trips to the plate and 11 total runs. Lewis & Clark scored their first three runs in the first three innings, before tacking on a run in the seventh and three more in the ninth. 
 
Pacific opened the scoring in the top of the first with a Davis Koester RBI double and a two-run home run from Matt Gibbs. 
 
After the Boxers added a fourth run in the top of the second, Lewis & Clark cut the deficit in half to start the second. Will Heron blasted a solo home run over the left-center field fence and Davis followed with a home run even deeper to the same spot for back-to-back homers. 
 
Pacific scored an unearned run in the top of the third, but Lewis & Clark responded right back to cut it to 5-3. Joaquin Sandoval singled with one down and beat the relay throw home on a Aikawa double that hit two-thirds of the way up the Pioneers right-field wall. 
 
The Boxers scored two runs in the fourth on a two-run, two-out double from Benjamin Lewis. They added four more runs in the fifth, two of them unearned, to take control of the game 11-3. 
 
Foster would shut the visitors down from there. He retired the side in order in the sixth, stranded two runners in scoring position in the seventh and left a single runner on in the eighth and ninth. 
 
Lewis & Clark cut the deficit to 11-4 in the seventh. Davis doubled down the right field line to end Governor Aufranc's outing. Gavin Mangano moved Davis up to third with a groundout and Bret Potter came through with an RBI single to right-center. 
 
The Pioneers saved their best offensive inning for the ninth against Pacific reliever William Merriott. Davis opened the frame with a double and Evyn Lewis followed with a pinch-hit RBI double to make it 11-5. With two down, Gonzaga sent a high fly ball into shallow left field to score Lewis from second. Connor Broschard followed with a pinch-hit walk and Aikawa roped a single to left-center to plate Gonzaga. Pacific went to the bullpen for a second time and Hunter registered a strikeout to close out the game. 
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• Davis moved into third in program history for career home runs (27) with his solo homer in the second inning. 
• Foster's previous career-high for innings pitched was 3.0 against Whitworth on March 15. 
• Heron hit his team-leading 12^th home run of the year to move into a tie for fourth in program history for homers in a single-season. His 19 career home runs are tied for 10^th all-time with former teammate Dylan Moore ('23). 
• Davis (119) tied former teammate Luke Bass ('24) for fifth all-time in program history for career RBI. Heron is just one RBI behind the pair with 118. 
• Ritter moved into third all-time in program history for career strikeouts (175) with his four strikeouts on Saturday. 

WHO'S NEXT 
 
Lewis & Clark will host the league-leading Boxers on Saturday at Noon and 3 p.m. in the final two games of the series. The Pioneers will look to snap a six-game losing streak against the Boxers on Saturday.