There’s not a ‘K’ in ‘victory’ — Warriors go without a whiff

The Lewis-Clark State Warriors continue their journey to a potential 20th red banner and a big reason for that has come from their approach at the plate.

In the first 49 games of the season before reaching the Avista NAIA World Series, the Warriors struck out 314 times for an average of 6.4 K’s per nine innings. LCSC would have loved to have that average in the first two games of its tournament this year.

On Friday and Saturday against Indiana Wesleyan and Southeastern, a stretch where the Warriors went 1-1, they struck out a total of 31 times, a 15.5 pace.

The 31 strikeouts stand out even more when you combine the total hits (17) and runs (14) the Warriors were able to muster in the first week of the Series.

After the day off Sunday, the Warriors have righted the ship at the plate.

In the 16-7 victory against MidAmerica Nazarene, the total number of strikeouts (seven) by Warrior batters was closer to the season average. Four of those strikeouts came at the hand of Bryce Brecklin, who entered the game in the fourth inning with the Warriors already jumping out to a 16-4 lead.

“Our guys are competitive, they’re resilient, obviously we are not looking to go out there and go down swinging or looking,” LCSC coach Jake Taylor. “They stuck with it and started to find a way to get it done.”

On Tuesday in an 8-3 victory against Taylor, the Warriors did not go down via strikes a single time in the game. It is the first game for the Warriors without a batter striking out since a 14-4 victory against British Columbia in March 2022.

The performance ended a 13-game streak of games where LCSC struck out at least four times.