No. 8 Seed Baseball Opens Avista NAIA World Series With Upset Win Over No. 3 seed LCSC

LEWISTON, Idaho- The baseball team started off their ninth Avista NAIA World Series the way they had hoped on Friday. The eighth-seeded Bulldogs opened the 69th World Series with a 12-4 win over the No. 3 seeded Lewis-Clark State College Warriors. 

The trend for the Bulldogs so far in the national tournament has been scoring in the first inning, and Allan Gil Fernandez made sure that trend continued. Fernandez sent a ball flying over the center field wall for a solo home run, giving the team a 1-0 lead after the first inning. 

TWU added to their lead in the second inning. Kolton Reynolds hit the first pitch he saw to center field for a single and got all the way to third on Ethan Wright's single. A wild pitch gave Reynolds the space to score to give the team a 2-0 lead at the end of the second inning.

In the third inning, the Bulldogs made it three consecutive one-run innings with three consecutive sinlges. Rob Gordon hit the first single of the inning and moved to third on Josh Shelly's single. David Ballenilla hit a single up the middle to bring in Gordon, making the team's lead 3-0 after the third inning.

Fernandez scored his second run of the game in the fifth inning, but it took a longer route than his first run. The hitter started the inning with a single, advancing to second on a passed ball. Gordon's hit to right-center field gave Fernandez the time to score, moving the team's lead to 4-0. Lewis-Clark scored a run in the bottom of the fifth to make the score 4-1.

The team's fifth one-run inning occurred in the sixth inning. Brayan Espinoza opened the inning with a double to center field, moving to third on a wild pitch. Espinoza was able to make the trip to home plate on Fernandez's RBI double, extending the lead back out to four runs as the scoreboard read 5-1. 

In the seventh inning, Tennessee Wesleyan scored three runs to move the lead to 8-1. After getting on first via a walk, Shelly got to second on a fly out and scored on a fielding error on Reynolds' at-bat. Espinoza followed Reynolds and sent the first pitch he saw over the center field wall, giving the team a seven-run advantage. Lewis-Clark scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to cut the lead down to 8-3. 

The Bulldogs copied their amount of runs from the seventh inning in the eighth inning. Fernandez hit his second double of the game to begin the inning and was joined on base by Gordon, who got on with a walk. A sacrifice bunt by Shelly moved both runners while a sacrifice fly by Ballenilla moved both runners again, bringing Fernandez across home plate. Gordon's time on base was completed on the third home run of the game for TWU, this one hit by Reynolds to move the lead to 11-3. Each team scored in the ninth inning, with the Bulldogs' run being scored by Fernandez on a Shelly RBI single. 

Justin Jackson got the pitching win, striking out six batters in 6.2 innings pitched. 

The win keeps Tennessee Wesleyan (44-14) in the winner's bracket of the bracket, where they move on to face No. 9 seed Indiana University Southeast on Monday at 9:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. PT.