The Baseball Observer May-June 2016 vol 7 | Page 58

Lewis-Clark State Wins Second-Straight NAIA Title

The Baseball Observer - May/ June 2016

LEWISTON, Idaho – The Lewis-Clark State College (Idaho) baseball team decided to have a blast in the championship game of the 60th annual Avista NAIA World Series baseball championship at Harris Field on Friday.

Actually, LCSC had a number of blasts, six to be exact.

The Warriors hit six home runs to defeat Faulkner University (Ala.) 12-11 in front of 5,020 fans to claim its NAIA best 18th national championship and its second in as many years. LCSC finishes the season 52-8.

Faulkner, which hit five home runs in the contest, finishes the season at 53-15. Both of its losses in the 10-team double-elimination tournament came against LCSC.

The wild contest ended in the bottom of the ninth when Faulkner had the game-tying run thrown out at third after Dario Polanco's two-run single to left field. The Eagles trailed 12-8 going into the bottom of the ninth, but pushed across three before Onix Martinez was thrown out at third base trying to go from first to third on Polanco's single. LCSC left-fielder Jacob Zanon (JR/Beaverton, Ore.)'s, the tournament's MVP, cut off the single and threw to shortstop Cabe Reiten (SR/Spanaway, Wash.), who relayed the throw to Micah Brown (SO/Medord, Ore.) at third, who put the tag on Martinez to end the game. The out emptied the LCSC dugout with a celebration dog pile on the pitcher's mound.

"On the last play I just got the ball in as quick as I could," Zanon said. "We practice it all year. I threw a bullet to Cabe and he threw a strike to third."

"This was an epic battle back and forth," LCSC coach Jeremiah Robbins said. "There were home runs being hit and pitchers getting rocked a bit. But the most resilient team was still standing at the end."

The 11 home runs set a record for most home runs in any Series game. The previous record was eight set in 1987. The previous championship game record was four in 2008 when LCSC defeated Lee University (Tenn.) 8-3 for the title.

LCSC, which struggled at the plate early

in the tournament, put up big numbers

with seven-extra base hits and more

than doubled its run average from its

previous four games.

"It started yesterday (Thursday) with a

light workout. It was the best one we had

all season," Robbins said of the offense.

"We had a team meeting after that and

it was emotional and special. You could

feel this coming."

Faulkner's Dennis Morton hit three

home runs to tie a Series record for

most home runs in a game. Beau Mills

of LCSC hit three home runs in the 2007

championship game.

The wild contest featured 29 hits, including 13 for extra bases. Despite all the runs and hits, LCSC only left four stranded on base while Faulkner left eight.

Warriors claim 18th banner in program history

Courtesy NAIA: Written by World Series Media Staff

Photo by Referee Photo

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