GAME 13: Bullpen to the Warriors' rescue

A rested bullpen has its advantages. On Tuesday it showed when the Lewis-Clark State Warriors eliminated the upstart Taylor Trojans 8-3 in Game 13 of the Avista NAIA World Series.

Coming into Tuesday, the least that any LCSC starting pitcher threw was 4 2/3 innings. Coach Jake Taylor mentioned after Monday’s win against MidAmerica Nazarene that the rested bullpen would matter later in the Series. “Later” was the next day.

Warriors starter Dallas McGill was pulled after pitching one-third of an inning and with Taylor leading 2-0. The Trojans’ lead came by way of a two-run home run.

Reliever Greg Blackman came in and got LCSC out of a jam at the top half of the first. In the bottom half, junior Nick Seamons was brought in after a fielding error to get within one run. Three at-bats later, the Warriors had the bases loaded and sophomore Dominic Signorelli uncorked a grand slam over the right-field wall to give his squad a 5-2 lead over Taylor.

Relievers Blackman and Alec Holmes pitched a combined 8ž innings and totaled seven strikeouts and six walks in 35 batters faced. Of Holmes’ pitches, 66% were strikes — 30 strikes on 45 total pitches.

“It is fantastic for our pitchers,” Taylor said. “The quick response back-to-back gets us right back in — not that we were out. But it gets us right back into it. (It) lets our guys start settling in. (Blackman) and Holmes were absolutely lights-out today.”

The Trojans wouldn’t be completely out of it after Signorelli’s four-RBI slam. A few innings later in the top half of the fourth, sophomore Luke Picchiotti scored after senior Kaleb Kolpien was walked with the bases loaded. Blackman would get the Warriors out of another jam to make sure the damage wasn’t worse than the one run.

“I just came in to pick up my guy,” Blackman said. “That’s been a big thing for us relievers. Just talking about with our coaches and talking about it amongst each other — just picking up our guys. That was a big moment for me coming in and picking up Dallas.”

Blackman’s efforts kept Taylor off the board in the fifth inning and allowed LCSC to continue bolstering its lead. In the bottom half of the fifth, a sac fly by junior Isaiah Thomas scored sophomore Isaac Haws, who was courtesy running for catcher Sam Olsson.

It was a solid showing in what was possibly Blackman’s last outing in a Warrior uniform. The senior is in his final year of eligibility after being granted an extra season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think I’ve been prepared for that all year,” Blackman said. “Luckily I got my extra year for COVID. So I’ve really been taking advantage of all these moments I can get and laying it all out there and letting my boys pick me up.”

With the Warriors’ lead at 6-3, Holmes’ moment to pick up Blackman would come in the top of the sixth with two outs and a Trojan runner on first.

Holmes would get the home team out of the inning and pitched the rest of the way, earning the save.

“I just tried to do it for the guys next to me,” Holmes said. “We knew we wanted to keep going for the next day and keep winning. Any way we can win now, it doesn’t matter at this point. I just want to do it for the guys next to me.”

LCSC would put up two more runs the rest of the way for the final score. Both were sac flies by Seamons. The first scored Jordan Justice in the bottom of the sixth and the last scored Joe Canty in the bottom of the eighth. It capped off a game where no Warrior batter was struck out by a Taylor pitcher.

For the Trojans, it was a disappointing end to coach Kyle Gould’s 1,000th game at the helm of the program and to a Series run that saw the seventh-seeded Taylor upset second-seeded Georgia Gwinnett.

“You hear what a great experience it is (making the World Series), and it’s three times better than I ever hoped it would be,” Gould said. “Everything that everyone does is incredible and we’re just blessed to be here and be a part of it and it was a great experience.”

The Trojans had to send out eight pitchers against Westmont on Monday’s 15-9 loss and three today. According to Gould, this contributed to the loss to LCSC on Tuesday.

“I just think we ran out of gas,” Gould said. “We’ve been here a week and I think it just took its toll on us. But our pitchers, I thought, did a great job holding it down through a great L-C lineup.”

With the win, the mighty Warriors are amongst the final four teams of the series with the aforementioned Westmont Warriors, William Carey Crusaders and the Southeastern Fire.

Lewis-Clark State will play William Carey at 3:05 p.m. today.

TAYLOR LEWIS-CLARK STATE

ab r h bi ab r h bi

Knepp 3b 3 0 1 0 Booth cf 4 0 1 0

Kolpien rf/cf 3 1 2 1 Seamons lf 3 1 1 2

Loy cf 0 0 0 0 Olsson c 4 0 0 1

Bass cf/rf 5 1 2 2 Haws pr 0 2 0 0

Vander Molen 1b 4 0 0 0 Updegrave rf 4 1 2 0

David 2b 4 0 1 0 Thomas dh 3 1 2 1

Manning lf 4 0 0 0 Signorelli 3b 3 1 1 4

Gladd dh 3 0 0 0 De Sa 2b 4 0 1 0

Kalbaugh c 4 0 0 0 Justice pr 0 1 0 0

Picchiotti pr 0 1 0 0 Marquez 1b 4 0 2 0

Kennedy ss 2 0 1 0 Rivera ss 2 0 0 0

Frickel ph 1 0 0 0 Canty ph 1 1 1 0

Totals 33 3 7 3 Totals 32 8 11 8

Taylor 200 100 000—3 7 2

Lewis-Clark State 500 011 01x—8 11 1

Taylor ip h r er bb so

Pentecost (L, 6-6) 3 6 5 4 0 0

Hunt 2.1 3 2 2 2 0

Ross 2.2 2 1 1 1 0

Lewis-Clark State ip h r er bb so

McGill 0.1 3 2 2 1 1

Blackman (W, 3-1) 5.1 2 1 0 5 5

Holmes (S, 2) 3.1 2 0 0 1 2

Attendance — 1,505.

Kowatsch can be contacted at 208-848-2277, tkowatsch@lmtribune.com or on Twitter @Teren_Kowatsch.

AT A GLANCE

Taylor      3

Lewis-Clark St.      8

STARS OF THE GAME

Sophomore DOMINIC SIGNORELLI uncorked a grand slam in the first inning to give the Warriors a 5-2 lead that they never gave up. Relief pitcher ALEC HOLMES and GREG BLACKMAN combined for seven strikeouts and just six walks in 35 batters faced.

QUOTE OF NOTE

“We got some serious depth on the pitching staff and we have confidence in a lot of our dudes. Our starters, hopefully, can go as long as they can and if not then we have a lot of guys who can back them up.”

— Lewis-Clark State relief pitcher Greg Blackman