A two-out single raised some apprehension, and another rearranged priorities. Suddenly there was more at stake than whether Matt Fitts could wrap up a complete game.
But the decision had already been made.
“They told me, ‘It’s all you. You’re either going to win it or lose it,’ ” said Fitts, summarizing the message relayed in a coach’s ninth-inning visit to the mound. “It’s good that they had that much faith.”
And that confidence was well-placed. With the potential tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position, Fitts registered his ninth strikeout of the evening and put an end to the NAIA West Coast Super Regional at Harris Field, giving Lewis-Clark State the two-game sweep.
The Warriors beat Azusa Pacific 4-3 on Thursday at Harris Field, just like they had the night before. Piecing together just enough offense with instances of defensive and pitching heroics, they subdued an opponent that is almost certain to get a top four seed in the NAIA World Series, which begins one week from today in Lewiston.
L-C, meanwhile, is destined for its customary third seed, the highest position it can obtain as the host team.
“This was a good experience for us, playing a couple tight games,” said Warrior coach Ed Cheff, whose team, now 53-5, is pursuing its 16th national championship, and third straight. “We’ve got to hit better than we have, do a better job making adjustments to what we’re seeing at the plate, but we’re playing well defensively and our pitching has been very good. Fitts gave us a great performance tonight.”
Bothered by early control issues (he walked two and plunked two batters) and weariness stemming from the warmest game conditions this spring, Fitts was adequately effective through the contest’s first half. He eluded a bases-loaded predicament in the third, yielded one run in what was nearly a big APU fourth and surrendered two unearned runs - the result of a catcher’s interference call on Brian Ward - in the fifth.
The final out of the APU fifth, a strikeout of Derrick Keeton, came about the time the sun disappeared in the West. “Then it cooled off, and I felt regenerated,” said Fitts, who proceeded to retire the Cougars in order over the next three innings.
L-C, which had tied things 3-all with Josh Ashenbrenner’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth, took the lead in the seventh. Sean Halton led off with a double, made possible by right fielder Drew Evans’ unsuccessful attempt at a diving catch, and Ikaika Lester followed with an RBI single to left.
That seemingly put the outcome in Fitts’ grip. Although the Warriors’ most bankable reliever, Justin Mace, was ready in the bullpen, Fitts ended the eighth with strikeouts of two of the Cougars’ more productive hitters, Brice Cutspec and Stephen Gillette.
So he came back out for the ninth, and got Keeton to fly out before fanning Ryan Dowell with a called third strike. Fitts then got ahead 0-2 on Evans, only to see him poke the next pitch into right for a single. Then Matt Venegas laced his next delivery into right, bringing APU’s hit total to six.
That brought up Galen Komo, a second baseman whose impressive lunging catch in shallow right field nixed L-C’s chance to add an insurance run. After a brief conference with Ward and pitching coach Gus Knickrehm, Fitts ran the count full on Komo.
He came back with the pitch he had depended on throughout the game’s later stages. Komo chased the low slider, which bounced away from Ward, but not far enough to prevent him from throwing down to first.
“I had to kind of work at it to finish things off,” said Fitts, who notched his third complete game of the season while running his record to 11-0. “You get used to pitching when guys score a lot of runs for you, so it was good to face some pressure there at the end.”
Lester and Ashenbrenner were instrumental to the support Fitts did receive, driving in two runs apiece. Lester belted his eighth home run in the fourth, a solo shot to left-center, and Ashenbrenner tacked on an RBI single later in the frame.
L-C “did a better job coming up with timely hits than we did,” said APU coach Paul Svagdis, whose ballclub, now 45-10, stranded eight baserunners, six of them in scoring position. “Games like these seem to come down to one hit there, one great play or one non-great play. We can take some satisfaction in having played 18 innings of solid baseball over the last two days, and we’ll go from there.”
NOTES - Azusa Pacific will remain in Lewiston until the Series. “We’re going to be practicing, like everyone else, getting prepared. We’re just going to do it here,” said Svagdis, mentioning that various team members might get in some fishing during the down time. … The Warriors have one preSeries game remaining, a Tuesday encounter in Seattle with Washington.
AZUSA PACIFIC LEWIS-CLARK ST.
ab r h bi ab r h bi
Venegas ss 5 1 2 0 Wyatt ss 3 0 2 0
Beyer 2b 3 0 1 0 Martin cf 4 0 0 0
Komo 2b 2 0 0 0 Greene 3b 4 1 0 0
Nieuenhs cf 2 1 0 0 Halton dh 4 1 1 0
Kohatsu dh 3 1 0 0 Lester 1b 3 1 2 2
Cutspec 1b 4 0 1 2 Ward c 4 0 1 0
Granitz pr 0 0 0 0 Anderson cr 0 1 0 0
Gillette lf 3 0 0 0 Ashnbrnr 2b 2 0 2 2
Keeton c 4 0 1 0 Valencia rf 3 0 0 0
Maddox cr cr 0 0 0 Pena ph 1 0 1 0
Dowell 3b 3 0 0 0 Benton ph 1 0 1 0
Evans rf 4 0 1 0
Totals 33 3 6 2 Totals 31 4 9 4
Azusa Pacific 001 020 000-3 6 2
Lewis-Clark State 000 210 10x-4 9 1
Azusa Pacific ip h r er bb so
Hodges 3.1 5 2 2 1 0
Pettikas 0.2 0 0 0 0 1
Stone (L, 5-3) 2.1 3 2 1 3 0
Gagne 0.2 0 0 0 0 0
Lebsock 1 1 0 0 0 1
Lewis-Clark State ip h r er bb so
Fitts (W, 11-0) 9 6 3 1 2 9
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Browitt may be contacted at jbrowitt@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2260.
