MISSOULA, Mont. - This time, the Lewis-Clark Twins put it all together.
Cooper Lund pitched six innings of two-hit ball in relief and the Twins racked up 15 hits Friday in a 9-3 win over Cheyenne, Wyo., in a loser-out game of the Northwest Regional Legion baseball tournament.
Luke White smacked a two-run home run and also doubled for the Twins (37-11) while Danny Robinson hit an RBI triple and a run-scoring double.
But the spark may have come in the fourth inning, when AJ Davis walked and set the stage for Jaden Philllips, whose triple opened the game's scoring and ignited the Twins' offense.
Lewis-Clark now faces host Missoula at 6 PDT tonight, with the winner advancing to the title round. Missoula advanced Friday night with a 10-4 win over Honolulu.
The Twins didn't need to rely specifically on pitching or defense or crunch-time heroics, as they've done repeatedly in their best postseason run in years. They did just about everything well as they won their second straight loser-out game after opening the tourney with a loss.
"It was one of those total-team-effort games," Twins coach Kevin Maurer said. "We get our first win of the tournament yesterday (against Juneau, Alaska) - we just needed to get that one out of the way to get back to the team we are and get our confidece level up to where it's been."
Lund took the mound in the third inning, after brief stints by Davis and Nate Savolainen, and Cheyenne didn't get on the scoreboard until tallying a run in the sixth. Lund struck out two and walked five while pitching the final six innings.
"With Cooper able to compete on the mound the way he did - his pitch count was high, but when he needed to make that pitch, he was able to do it," Maurer said. "And our defense was flat-out amazing today."
The Twins also stole five bases, after uncharacteristically going the first two games of the tourney with nary a stolen base.
Lewis-Clark, which won the Idaho state title for the first time in eight years, outhit the Wyoming champion 15-5 and led 9-1 before Cheyenne scored twice in the ninth, getting a solo homer from Sean Carson.
The Twins did take a while to get going. The score was 0-0 before they got untracked in the fourth and fifth innings - opening with a walk and a stolen base in each case.
Jaden Phillips laced an RBI triple preceding Robinson's big double in the fourth, and Alex Light lent a spark with a run-scoring single in the fifth. Davis followed with single to plate a run and White then bashed his homer.
White added a double in the seventh and scored on a Phillips single.
Light and Riley Way finished with three hits apiece, while White, Phillips and Robinson drove in two runs each.
The losing pitcher was Connor Redman, who allowed eight hits in 41/3 innings.
Cheyenne 000 001 002-3 5 2
Lewis-Clark 000 240 21x-9 15 1
Davis, Savolainen (3), Lund (4) and Adkison. Inniss, Andren (2), Redman (4), Monaco (8) and Inniss.
Cheyenne hits - Inniss, Andren, Anderson 2, Carson (HR), Prince.
Lewis-Clark hits - Way 3, Light 3, White 2 (HR, 2B), Philllips 2 (3B), Adkison, Robinson 2 (2B, 3B), Olson
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments are reviewed by the moderator in order to avoid spam. Your comment may take up to 24 hours to post.