Blue Devils 1, L-C Cubs 0

A pitcher's duel between the Lewis-Clark Cubs and the Moscow Blue Devils came down to a perfectly placed bunt and some timely hitting by Seth Wadsworth.

The Blue Devils pitcher tossed a two-hitter and knocked in the game's lone run in the second inning to help his team snag a 1-0 victory in the Idaho Area A tournament.

"It was pretty exciting, our backs were against the wall," Mattoon said. "We were saving Seth for when we got knocked into the loser's bracket. He got the ball and did a very good job of spotting his pitches."

The Blue Devils posted their only run in the bottom of the second when Hayden Thompson reached base on a walk. Brock Garrity laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Thompson to second before Wadsworth lined the first pitch of his at-bat up the middle.

"Garrity hasn't bunted very much for us, but I knew at that point we needed to get runners in scoring position," Mattoon said. "I took a gamble and he got down a beautiful bunt."

Wadsworth also dominated on the mound, tossing a two-hitter in the complete-game effort.

"He has been working on a two-seam fastball versus a four-seam, so he was able to locate that very well," Mattoon said. "It's got quite a bit of movement on it, and it was just enough to keep them off balance so he could move the ball inside and out."

Lewis-Clark pitcher Dalton Hart also finished with a two-hitter on the mound, tallying three punchouts in the loss.

"He was just battling," Cubs coach Ramon Royce said. "He had both his fastball and curveball working for him."

Lewis-Clark had an opportunity to tie the game in the top of the fourth with runners on first and second, but Wadsworth recorded consecutive outs to cut short the threat.

"There was only one out, so if we had hit a ball to the outfield we would've scored a runner," Royce said.

The victory advances Moscow in the loser's bracket to a 4:30 p.m. game today against Northern Lakes of Rathdrum, Idaho. Three more wins qualifies the Blue Devils for a berth in the state tournament.

"We're just living every day inning by inning," Mattoon said. "Seth helped us a bunch today by being the lone pitcher and saving us some arms. We're sitting in a good spot, we still have pitchers left so we've just got to make the most of them."

The loss eliminated the Cubs from postseason contention.

"The guys did a good job of being teammates and creating that brotherhood with one another," Royce said. "I know they took away some life lessons from baseball and battling through adversity."

Lewis-Clark 000 000 0-0 2 1

Moscow 010 000 x-1 2 0

Dalton Hart and Tui Moliga. Seth Wadsworth and Brysen Gottschalk.

Lewis-Clark hits - Tyson Wallace and Treighton Skinner.

Moscow hits - Mat Shears and Seth Wadsworth.