But even with the fates seemingly against them, the Warriors willed a rally into being. They roared back from a mid-game six-run deficit and pounded out a 10-7 triumph over St. Thomas in the championship game of the Avista NAIA World Series at Harris Field. That was the largest rally in title history.

L-C took command with what will become a legendary six-run eighth inning. It came after the Warriors' offense had sputtered and chugged all evening, and it came after a 44-minute lightning delay in the sixth that seemed to jolt the Lewiston club awake.

Most of a crowd of 4,975 was still on hand for the uprising in the eighth, which featured Cabe Reiten's RBI single, Max Whitt's two-run single up the middle, Julian Ramon's run-scoring double and Robert Smith's RBI sacrifice fly.

When the inning started, St. Thomas led 7-4. When it was over, LCSC was somehow ahead 10-7.

"We talked about it before the game today, being resilient, fighting through a lot of different things," Warriors coach Jeremiah Robbins said. "I tell you, they were all of that today."

LCSC's 16 previous championships were won with Ed Cheff as coach. The program last grabbed the crown in 2008, but Cheff's last two clubs, in '09 and '10, fell short of the title, and he retired.

Robbins took over the program in '12 and guided the Warriors to runner-up finishes in each of his first two seasons before Friday's championship breakthrough.

"It's good people can believe in our system still," he said. "They might have had some doubts the last couple years coming up short, but we've got a good plan in motion, we're bringing in the right guys, the guys are staying committed to the game and doing some real special things that a lot of people don't get to see."

The Warriors (46-12) finished the Series with a pair of monumental rallies on back-to-back nights. They spotted Faulkner five runs in the first two innings Thursday before charging to a 10-8 victory. And on Friday, St. Thomas put up a five-spot in the first inning to put L-C's title aspirations on the brink.

Bobcats starting pitcher Ben Ancheff, who is listed at 300 pounds, seemed to frustrate the Warriors with his slow pace and nasty arsenal of pitches. The husky hurler limited L-C to one run and two hits in the first four innings.

Ancheff left the game in the fifth in the middle of an at-bat with an apparent arm injury. The Warriors proceeded to load the bases, but Ty Jackson popped out to foul territory and Whitt smashed a drive to the wall in right that Harris Field just did contain.

St. Thomas (48-18) jumped to a 7-1 lead when Eric Santamaria launched a meandering drive to left that just did trickle over the wall - and just did stay fair - for a two-run homer.

Prior to the lightning delay, the Warriors got two back in the top of the sixth on run-scoring doubles from Michael Sexton and Cabe Reiten. Reiten's shot to right was misplayed by St. Thomas' Nico Hernandez.

Post-delay, L-C tacked on one run in the seventh, then came the dam-break in the eighth. Smith led off with a double, and the Bobcats proceeded to plunk two batters and let another one reach on an error.

Whitt's single up the middle, which came with two strikes, scored the tying and go-ahead runs. Ramon followed with a rising blast to left that scored one and the last tally came home on a sac fly from Smith, the man who started the rally.

"I told the guys that lightning is recharging our batteries, and boy it did," Robbins said. "We had a good conservation in the dugout, caught our breath. We had been reeling the whole game. We were on our heels. We finally got to dig our heels in a little bit, we came back and responded."

LCSC starting pitcher Nick Sagendorf got off to a poor start, allowing three hits and walking two in the Bobcats' five-run first. Yet he proceeded to blank St. Thomas until the fifth, when Santamaria cracked his homer.

The Warriors brought in Cameron Pongs, who allowed just one hit and no runs over the last 42/3 innings. He also kept pitching even after the lightning delay.

Pongs, a senior lefty, said he treated the delay "like a long inning."

"I kept seeing lightning strikes out in the distance, and I was hoping they didn't push it back, and thank God they didn't, because it gave me a chance to go out there and finish this for us."

Pongs was at the center of the Warriors' dogpile when the final out was recorded. It was a familiar site - yet somehow fresh, given the time since L-C's last such celebration.

And when Robbins enlisted his team to help lead an effort to resurface the playing surface at Harris Field and build both a new wall behind home plate and new dugouts, he knew that that too wouldn't be easy.

So with the Warriors down by six to a team that had won every game its played following a loss on the Series' opening day, why would LCSC's march toward its 17th NAIA baseball championship be any different?

"I'm just really happy for him," LCSC athletic director Gary Picone said of Robbins. "I had no doubt that he was the right guy. He fits the program, understands who we are and can deal with the pressures of the history. I had no doubt."

Nothing about Robbins' tenure so far in Lewiston has been easy - and I mean that in the best way possible.

A meticulous and demanding coach, Robbins, who is very aware of his position in the baseball world, set the tone early by establishing his system and slowly bringing in players that fit the his idea of what a Warrior should be.

That meant being present at community events, that meant putting in long hours both on the field and in class and for almost the entire fall of 2014, that meant digging into turf and getting their hands dirty in something more than just an infield.

However, for everything that Robbins and his Warriors knew, what they probably weren't aware of was that the overhaul would be both literal and symbolic.

As those shovels and excavators dug through hallowed turf, the makeover perhaps stirred something that hadn't been felt around those parts for some time - something that hadn't been felt since the Warriors' last title in 2008.

And for the Warriors, that something showed up when they needed it most.

Trailing 7-3 and slowly running out of chances, the Warriors caught perhaps their best break of the night when a flash went off in the distance behind Harris Field.

As many of the 4,975 milled around in and about the stadium, you could feel a different energy in the air.

They were coming - those ghosts of championship teams past were making their way back to Lewiston.

The lightning itself may have been quiet, but the thunder would wait until after the delay was over as the Warriors charged back in way that had never been seen in a title game before.

Just a little more than 24 hours removed from digging out of a five-run hole and several months removed from digging out of a hole nearly as big as the field itself, the Warriors closed with within three and then unloaded with a six-run eighth inning that effectively broke both St. Thomas' and the record for the largest deficit overcome in a title game.

"It was a relief getting out of the first inning," Robbins said alluding to a opening frame in which St. Thomas took a 5-0 lead. "The guys were so resilient.

"We know what the program means to the community and the tradition here. We just happy to be a part of it - working hard. We doing what we're doing and loving it."

The two analyzed pitch after pitch, bouncing thoughts off each other and guessing what the next pitch was going to be.

Scott was there the last time Myers was at Harris Field, too. Scott was in elementary school then, and adopted Spring Arbor as his team after Myers and his team visited local elementary schools to promote reading.

Since then the two have built a friendship nearly a decade old and Myers has returned to Lewiston to watch his friend graduate from LHS today at the Activity Center.

"We met at the lunch tables, we were going around. We kind of hung out and then he was at every single baseball game during the World Series, he just latched onto our team," Myers said.

Spring Arbor fell to L-C in the 2007 title game with Myers sideline while recovering from Tommy John surgery.

The two made sure to keep in touch, sometimes calling and texting each other.

"I had the views of these little kids who thought we were big-time athletes, I think there was that," Myers said. "I enjoyed hanging out with them during the recess and stuff. I think he was more upset after we lost our championship than I was."

But luckily for both, Spring Arbor earned a trip back to the Series again in 2008. This time Scott was going to be able to see his friend pitch.

Myers is bursting with memories when it comes to his senior season trip to the Series. Not the least of which is losing to L-C for the second straight season.

He found out two weeks prior to the Series he'd need surgery to remove testicular cancer, which he put off until after his trip to Lewiston because he wanted to pitch and he wanted to see his friend Scott.

"I didn't want to do was make it a big deal for the team so I just kept it to myself," Myers said. "I had to do some things when I was here in terms of taking the test, I told them surgery wasn't an option until after the World Series."

Once again his Spring Arbor team fell to L-C, and his college career was over. But his friendship wasn't. Myers is now the head baseball coach at the University of Dallas, an NCAA Division III school, and will be there every step of the way for Scott as he begins his collegiate career at Corban.

Whether it's on how to compete for a starting job or how to prepare for that math test, Myers has Scott's back.

"He just started to ask me questions about what to expect, how to approach being a baseball player and still do the academic side of it. He's got a real competitive edge to him," Myers said. "I've been telling him if you're goal is to be a starter is to go in for day one and compete. It's just some things, what to expect as a college player, what to expect about college life, some of those aspects."

A handful of Lewis-Clark State players leaned atop the railing at the top of the dugout and silently stared into nothing. Others were sitting on the bench with their heads down. Some players chatted with each other, while others were off in isolation.

L-C players were allowed to choose for themselves how to use their time during a 44-minute lightning delay Friday night during the sixth inning of the Avista NAIA World Series championship game.

Trailing St. Thomas 7-3, the Warriors' dugout seemed defeated and drained of energy.

In reality, deeper forces were at work. Perhaps, even, divine ones.

"That whole time our coach was going down (the line) saying this lightning delay is God's way of saying it's our chance, our opportunity to go get it," L-C second baseman Max Whitt said.

Such is the way of L-C's third-year coach Jeremiah Robbins. While certain situations call for being loose, the Warriors usually operate with a no-nonsense approach when there is business on the diamond to attend to.

For the Warriors, the delay was effectively one - long and drawn out - timeout. It allotted them time to reflect on St. Thomas' five-run first inning, or reflect on not cashing in with any runs in the second inning after having the first two runners reach base.

Mostly, they could reflect on the fact that the Warriors were on the verge of seeing the program's 17th national championship slip from their fingers on their home turf for a third consecutive season.

"I told the guys that lightning is recharging our batteries," Robbins said. "Boy it did. We had a good conversation in the dugout, caught our breath, we had been reeling the whole game."

The Warriors finally won title No. 17 Friday night, and feel like they have that battery recharge to thank for it.

It charged their bats, specifically.

L-C's leading slugger Seth Brown started the seventh inning with a double to the right-center field wall and scored on a groundout two hitters later. The run only cut the deficit to 7-4, but the energy among a crowd of 4,975 on hand at Harris Field felt it.

Cameron Pongs threw 4 2/3 shutout innings of one-hit ball with seven strikeouts to clear the way for L-C to do what it does best: Out-hit the opposing team to death.

Robert Smith started the eighth inning with a double to the wall and came around to score two hitters later with a base hit by Cabe Reiten. Brown came up with the bases loaded two hitters after that and reached on an error to cut the lead to 7-6.

Harris Field was ready to erupt.

Whitt gave the crowd the assurance that their faith wasn't misplaced. His bouncing single up the middle on a 0-2 pitch gave L-C the 8-7 lead, completing the largest comeback in NAIA championship game history. Momentum had completely swung,

"I was fighting for these guys, these guys are nonstop fight for me so I was fighting for them and I just got a pitch I could handle and I just drove it right back up the middle," Whitt said.

If anything was recharging L-C's batteries it was the crowd that largely came back in full force following the lightning delays. Only a handful of seats were vacated when play resumed around 9:30 local time.

Even before the delay, when the Warriors trailed 7-1, the fans just wouldn't stop being positive. Take it from fan Anthony Amoss, who ran back and forth the home plate crowd to start the wave and started a "L-C Warriors" even when things looked at their bleakest.

Somehow, he knew the comeback was coming.

Big Ben Ancheff, making his first start of the tournament, got the Bobcats out to a hot start. Aided by some first-inning run support - STU would steal a 5-0 lead - Ancheff kept Lewis-Clark State off the board for the first two innings. And when the Warriors did finally strike in the third, it was a harmless one-run blow.

When Ancheff left the game holding his right elbow - the junior had Tommy John surgery just 15 months ago - Perez swapped his starter with short reliever Brandon Valentin.

Valentin and Tyeler Checkley kept the L-C offense down in the fifth inning and it was Checkley who got the Bobcats out of a bases-loaded jam by inducing consecutive popouts from Ty Jackson and Max Whitt - escaping the heart of the Warrior order unscathed.

The Warriors dialed up two runs in the top of the sixth, but Alex Viera got out of that frame relatively safe, too.

But a sixth-inning lightning delay forced Perez to frantically rework the plan he'd scripted sometime earlier that day.

"I make no excuse, but that delay destroyed us," Perez said. "If we don't have that delay, (Viera) stays another inning. It changes the whole complexity of the game."

But Viera, who gave the Bobcats two innings and 32 pitches on Wednesday, went cold during the game break and was relieved by Andrew Denis in the top of the seventh.

"I had everybody lined up perfectly," Perez said. "But that delay, when he went back, he couldn't. He'd pitched two days earlier. I had to take out one of my best pitchers."

Five runs would come through the next three innings. And Perez would have to go burn two more arms - including that of first baseman Eric Santamaria, who hadn't tested his since last season.

A shoulder injury sidelined the one-time STU closer, who replaced Denis in the top of the eighth inning.

The experiment backfired almost immediately.

"We had two big errors in the eighth and if we make those plays, I think the game changes," Perez said. "But, what are you going to do?"

LCSC did the Bobcat relievers in for six runs in the eighth - four of which were credited to Santamaria and two more tagged to closer Chris Rodriguez, who'd still need three outs to get out of the inning upon entering.

"Getting on the mound again after my season last year, after I hurt my elbow, I wanted it bad," said Santamaria, who bashed a two-run homer in the fifth inning and seemed a likely candidate for the tournament's most valuable player had St. Thomas come out on the other end of the scoreline.

"My hat goes off to the other team, they hit me well, they took good pitches and they fought hard," he said.

Even in retrospect, Perez might have gone about things the same way.

So, without much reluctance, Grittner stood up out of his seat on the first-base line, herded his three-man army - Tré, 7-year-old brother Dash and 9-year-old friend Dominic - and marched over to the third-base bleachers adjacent to the St. Thomas dugout.

His mom, Colleen, recalled her son professing: "I can't handle this anymore," followed by, "I'm going to go over by the team and rally them."

The Bobcats, trailing 3-0 and on the brink of elimination from the NAIA World Series, needed a shot of energy from their biggest, littlest fan.

Grittner delivered chants of "Bobcats! Bobcats! Bobcats!" and St. Thomas, two innings later, delivered another one of its signature rallies, ultimately defeating unbeaten Faulkner in the 10th.

"I just love getting to watch these guys play because they put all their hearts into it to win," Tré Grittner said Wednesday after the Bobcats let him partake in their on-field celebrations.

Grittner's relationship with the club from Miami Gardens, Fla., spawned during the tournament's opening ceremony when the third-grader from McGee Elementary School approached the Bobcats, informing them he'd become a big fan.

"He said, 'I like you guys, I have a good feeling about you guys,' " St. Thomas closer Chris Rodriguez said.

His inkling was spot on, only at that juncture, few others were saying the same. The ninth-seeded Bobcats were battered by Concordia in their opener, immediately dropping them into the loser's bracket.

"We lost 12-2 and he still stuck around," Rodriguez said.

Acknowledging Grittner's allegiance, the Bobcats made their newfound fan a promise.

If St. Thomas hung around until Tuesday - meaning the Bobcats win consecutive games - the team would attend Grittner's Lewiston Little League game that afternoon.

St. Thomas first beat Davenport, then Vanguard, then top-seeded Oklahoma Baptist in another loser-out game played Tuesday afternoon.

Still, Colleen Grittner cautioned her son: "Don't count on it because they are busy and they've got a lot going on."

But the Bobcats honored their promise.

The players, most of whom were still in uniform after their 5-4 win over the Bison, drove directly to Inland Cellular Field, where Grittner's Mariners team was playing.

"We made his day (Tuesday) from what his mom told me," St. Thomas skipper Jorge Perez said, "and he's made our week here."

Indeed, Grittner brimmed with joy when players from his favorite NAIA club strolled up to greet him. And when the game's umpires failed to show, a pair of St. Thomas players - Eric Santamaria and Andrew Denis - lent a hand until the crew arrived.

"It was awesome," Grittner said. "I felt like I was in the NAIA World Series."

A second baseman who also fills in on the mound for the Mariners, Grittner has attended the Series each of the last five years. For the last three, his parents - devout Lewis-Clark State fans - have held season tickets.

At last year's tournament, Grittner tooted the horn for Oklahoma Wesleyan - a team he's followed religiously ever since. When the Eagles lost in the NAIA opening round, thus crushing any hopes for a return to Lewiston, coach Matt Parker sent Grittner a care package as an apology that the 9-year-old wouldn't get to see his squad at Harris Field this year.

"The boys have followed all their games, they've been watching them on live-stream TV," Colleen Grittner said. "So when (OWU) lost, they were broken-hearted."

But the Bobcats have been more than fortunate to adopt Grittner's fandom.

"(For him) to be our biggest fan here is phenomenal," Perez said.

And St. Thomas has given Grittner quite the show. In their last four games, the Bobcats have scored the go-ahead run in the eighth, ninth or 10th inning.

Of course, none of those first three could compare to Thursday's.

Lewis-Clark State scored zero runs in last year's championship game against Cumberland.

Nada. Zilch.

It was almost painful to watch as Anthony Gomez stranded runner after runner. I remember shaking my head, chalking it up to divine intervention or something, when Cody Lavalli slipped coming around third base on a Michael Sexton double in the eighth inning of that game. It would've cut Cumberland's lead to 3-1, and with a full house at Harris Field it may have been all the Warriors needed to spark a rally.

Instead the Warriors plated nothing, and the Bulldogs became the second straight team to celebrate a national title in front of the Warriors on their home field.

Here's the problem: L-C was a good hitting team last year, but not great. Not great enough to overcome the most dominant pitcher in the tournament.

Five games during the 2015 Series, the Warriors have proven those shortcomings won't happen this time around. The Warriors have 35 runs in those five games, which includes only being able to score two runs in their Wednesday win over Embry-Riddle.

And even in that game L-C showed it has the moxie to come up with clutch hits to be able to win a game like last year's championship tilt, should it come to that.

Wednesday night, Ty Jackson belted a home run in the sixth inning to break the scoreless deadlock. Seth Brown added a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 2-0 and give no doubts that L-C would move into Thursday's festivities.

Faulkner jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the second inning, which left a crowd of 4,005 noticeably restless.

But the fans shouldn't have had any doubt, and they all acted like they never had any doubt in the ninth inning when reliever Beau Kerns put the finishing touches on a 10-8 win thanks to L-C's bats systematically clipping down Faulkner's lead inning after inning. Jackson and Max Whitt both blasted home runs while the Warriors only left 12 of 22 runners on base.

The more impressive thing to me was not only the biggest hit of the game coming from a pinch hitter, but that Jeremiah Robbins has such a deep hitting team that he's saving the bats on the bench as if they're weapons - because they are.

With action tied at 8-8 in the bottom of the seventh and the bases loaded with no outs, Robbins called on Cameron Pongs to pinch hit. Pongs delivered the game-winning two-run single up the middle.

All in all the Warriors spread 10 hits among seven players. And with a team hitting this well, it's hard to see St. Thomas doing anything close to what Cumberland did last season. The Bobcats are going to have to hit along with L-C in order to steal the title from the hometown team.

"With our club, that's obviously the past, but there's so many new guys that over half our team didn't even see that game. We've come with a different approach this year," Robbins said. "We've got some more swing in our bat and last year we kind of had a different approach, it wasn't working."

The Warriors have increased their run output by 86 runs over last season, with 51 more home runs.

"This year we're going to swing. We're going to strike out a little bit, we're good with that, but we're going to have a good approach," Robbins said.

As for last year, players say they're talking about it and vowing not to let it happen again. Because they know they're better than that this time around.

Lowell, who has no direct connection to the NAIA program in Miami Gardens, Fla., told the Bobcats this: "I want you guys to remember, no matter what the stakes are the game doesn't change," the two-time MLB World Series champion said in his YouTube message. "Between those white lines, whether it's practice in a scrimmage, or the most important game of your career, everything's the same."

Most of the Bobcats will play in the most important game of their career, to this point, when St. Thomas takes on Lewis-Clark State at 6:35 tonight in the championship game of the Avista NAIA World Series.

With some parting words, Lowell wished the Bobcats good luck.

"I'll be watching you guys, keeping up to date on how you guys are doing," he said, "I wish you the best of luck. Hopefully you can bring that title home."

It would be the first of its kind for ninth-seeded St. Thomas, which began as the tournament's biggest underdog after falling flat in its opener - a 12-2 drubbing courtesy of Concordia.

Since, the Bobcats have turned into the Series' best story.

St. Thomas rebounded from last Friday's defeat by topping Davenport 8-3 on Saturday, blasting Vanguard 14-10 Monday, gutting out a 5-4 win over No. 1 Oklahoma Baptist on Tuesday and then edging No. 2 Faulkner in 10 innings Wednesday.

Five games later, the Bobcats were rewarded with an off day.

"The rest was huge," coach Jorge Perez said.

The team spent Thursday practicing and resting. They made a necessary pit stop at Dutch Bros. Coffee, too.

"We don't have that in the East Coast," Perez noted, "so we took them there and they all enjoyed it."

The Bobcats then made their way to Harris Field, where they would learn their opponent for tonight's title game.

And as Lewis-Clark State disposed of Faulkner, the buzz around the St. Thomas clan was mostly positive.

"That's what we wanted," one player yelled.

Surely, there are downsides to playing the tournament hosts on their own turf, where the Warriors have won 13 of their 16 NAIA national titles.

Apparently, there are some positives, too.

"It's going to be fun, man, it's going to be fun," Perez said. "They're kids, they want to play in front of a big crowd."

The Bobcats, much like the Warriors, are thin when it comes to their options on the mound.

Thursday, Perez said junior righty Ben Ancheff will get the rock to start things off for St. Thomas. Ancheff's only appearance at the Series came in relief against Vanguard. He threw 21/3 innings, conceding three earned runs on three hits.

"He's about 15 months removed from Tommy John, he's just coming back," said Perez, who hopes Ancheff will give the Bobcats three or four strong innings.

Seeking its fifth consecutive win in a seven-day span, St. Thomas will head into tonight's game with Lowell's message burned into the back of their brains.

"Things like that help," Perez assured.

The coach was on the receiving end of another encouraging memo - this from LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri, another household name in the South Florida region who led his team to the 2009 College World Series title.

Mainieri coached the Bobcats from 1993-98 and the program has since named its diamond after him.

Helping his team rally from a five-run deficit to stun Faulkner 10-8 Thursday at Harris Field in the Avista NAIA World Series semifinals, Kerns took all of six pitches upon running out of the bullpen to perhaps shift the momentum back to the Warriors' dugout as he continued his role as something of a team talisman.

In the Warriors' four wins to get to this point, Kerns had a hand in each of them - earning two saves and two wins, none more memorable than his latest gem.

Kerns' first offering of the game induced an immediate groundout and seemed to bring the Harris Field fans back to life after they spent the opening two frames watching Faulkner continue to punish the Warriors in two-out situations, a key to the Eagles' win over L-C two nights earlier.

"We've got the best hitters in the nation," said Kerns, who quickly retired the first three batters he faced and watched as his scoreless team rediscovered its offensive mojo in the home half of the third, doubling its offensive output from the previous night in just three outs and pulling within a run of Faulkner thanks to a four-score splurge.

Four innings later, Kerns surrendered his second homer of the night when Faulkner's Randy Joung took him over the right-field wall in the top of the seventh to keep the Eagles up a run, 8-7. But from that point on, Kerns throttled the Alabama school, allowing just one batter to even reach scoring position the remainder of the game.

Continuing to pitch right at the Eagles down the stretch, Kerns let just one Faulkner batter reach in both the eighth and ninth innings.

And on his 84th and final offering of the game, Kerns induced Faulkner's Nick Cain into a swinging strikeout - after which, the Warriors' reliever pointed to the sky.

And the hometown crowd saluted Kerns as well, after an aggressive performance which saw the collegiate senior throw 69 strikes and cede just two earned runs during a contest that at times resembled a 1980s NAIA shootout - with four home runs total.

"Beau has what you call a rubber arm," said L-C teammate and former Lewiston High comrade Zach Holley, a friend who goes back to Kerns' early teens and emphasizes Kerns' low-key demeanor. "Off the field, he's not as hyped, but when he toes the line, he turns into a completely different person."

"When the little brothers are getting their butts kicked, they call up the big brother," said Warriors coach Jeremiah Robbins, who compared Kerns to the big brother of his teammates on Thursday, refusing to watch his little brothers continue to get pushed around.

"Beau's our big brother," added Robins, "and ... the program means more to him than to a lot of people."

Kerns grew up chasing foul balls at Harris Field, and even enjoyed a brief - and somewhat eventful stint - as part of the Diamond Crew of the World Series.

Though Kerns apparently pitches better than he rakes.

"Chad Miltenberger's brother actually kicked me off the crew," laughed Kerns, revelling in the memory. "He said we weren't pulling tarp well enough."

But when it really counted, Kerns pulled his teammates through a tough spot.

Though don't expect him to take any credit.

What does he think of his team's latest win?

"Tonight," Kerns said, "was really a testament to our hitters."

Seth Brown laid in wait to ambush Jackson after his trip around the bases. He grabbed and shook his teammate with fervor. Screaming was also involved.

"When one of your teammates does something like that in a big situation, you can't help but lose your mind for them," Brown said. "I needed to go out there and meet him because what a tremendous, tremendous performance from Ty. It was gutsy."

Jackson didn't have much time to get as amped about what would eventually turn out to be the game-winning shot. He had to head back out to the pitcher's mound, where he was in the midst of engineering a masterpiece shutout of the Eagles.

Handling the pressure of all facets of the game tends to bring out the best in Jackson. After Wednesday night, the junior from Kennewick, Wash., is hitting .400 with five home runs on days in which he pitches and hits.

"I think I just relax on the hitting aspect and focus on the pitching and not bring the at-bat to the field or the pitching to the hitting," Jackson said. "Most people think it'd be the opposite. But it's relaxing, I did it through high school so it's just something I focus on doing."

Jackson was too nervous to even look at the scoreboard when he trotted back to the pitcher's mound following his solo blast. Instead, he kept staring down hitters and inducing empty swings from Embry-Riddle hitters.

He made it 115 pitches and two outs into the eighth before LCSC coach Jeremiah Robbins ventured to the mound to pull the star of the day. Jackson made his case to stay in the game, but Robbins pointed his right arm to the bullpen to grab Beau Kerns.

"He just asked me, 'How ya feeling?' I told him 'good,' " Jackson said. "I saw Beau warming up and he's like, 'We've got a good matchup,' and I wasn't me or Beau. But he put Beau in and he's one of the best relievers, he just competes, he's a bulldog. Giving it up to him was real easy for me."

Kerns did what Kerns does, finishing off the eighth in two pitches and closing out LCSC's 2-0 victory in 1-2-3 fashion in the ninth.

But Jackson got his due showering of love when a crowd of 2,370 took to their feet to cheer Jackson on his way to the dugout. His performances wasn't lost on Warriors fans, who are used to their team digging deep with their backs against the elimination wall.

They probably even noticed what he did with the glove. Jackson foiled Embry-Riddle sacrifice bunts in back-to-back innings, getting the lead runner at third base in the sixth and the lead runner at second base in the seventh. Had he gone to first and allowed the sacrifice, runs most likely would have scored.

Lewis-Clark State faces Faulkner tonight with a spot in Friday night's championship game against St. Thomas on the line. And Warriors fans know who to thank.

"It was unbelievable," Jackson said. "The community and the support they have for L-C baseball is unreal."

Rallying from a 3-0 deficit in the ninth and winning it in the 10th, the Bobcats claimed a 6-3 triumph over Faulkner at Harris Field Wednesday to punch the Bobcats their ticket to the national title game of the NAIA World Series.

Getting a day of rest before playing for all the marbles on Friday, St. Thomas will await the winner of today's Faulkner vs. Lewis-Clark State game.

"We have all the faith in the world in this team," said Eddy Santamaria, the father of Bobcats first-baseman Eric Santamaria.

He was and one of a handful of St. Thomas fans vocally rooting their team on from the third-base line - and he fully expected his son's crew to rally, having already made his reservations in town through the end of the weekend.

Added Santamaria: "They always come back."

And in dramatic fashion.

Facing elimination for their past four games, the Bobcats have scored the go-ahead run in all those tilts in the eighth or ninth inning.

And perhaps part of the team's magic emanates from the stands.

"We're lucky to have all these fans come out here and support us," said Bobcats infielder Eric Santamaria, "because without them, we can't do it all."

When a fellow parent came up to Herb Valentin late in the game and told him it had been a good season, he corrected him: The season's not over.

"I swear on a stack of Bibles, I said it like that," Valentin said, his voice rising. "And then we came back and tied it."

And in the top of the 10th, with the bases loaded, the unthinkable happened: 5-foot-5 Adam Duarte went down when Faulkner hit him in the leg with a pitch - bringing in the winning run on a bases-loaded walk.

"When I got up, I heard everybody cheering, and the first thing that went though my mind was that, 'We just took the lead,' " Duarte recalled.

"You should hear them in the hallway at the hotel," joked St. Thomas coach Jorge Perez, noting how enthusiastic his team's fans are.

"We have 15 to 20 people, but they sound like 200."

And they're not afraid to give you their opinion.

Ty - that's junior pitcher/slugger Ty Jackson - took that sentiment to heart. He provided himself with all the run support he needed, blasting a solo home run to left-center in the sixth inning to break the scoreless deadlock and nudge the Warriors to a hard-earned victory.

Jackson's masterful pitching and timely bomb were the crux of LCSC's 2-0 win over Embry-Riddle in an Avista NAIA World Series stare-down Wednesday afternoon in front of 2,370 spectators.

The win earned the Warriors (44-12) a rematch with Faulkner, the only club they've lost to in the Series. Those teams will play tonight at 6:35, with the winner advancing to Friday's national championship game against ninth-seeded darling St. Thomas.

Jackson worked 72/3 innings on the mound and allowed six hits and two walks while striking out seven. He was replaced in the eighth by Beau Kerns, who needed just 12 pitches to record four outs and complete the shutout in his third successful relief appearance of the Series.

The hard-luck loser was ERAU's Tyler Cyr, a right-handed junior who limited the Warriors to five hits, two walks and two runs while striking out nine.

"Their guy was really good and we knew it going into it," Robbins said. "And our guy matched him, damn near pitch for pitch."

Or, as Eagles coach Randy Stegall put it: "Our guy (Cyr) made one mistake; (Jackson) didn't make any. That's the way it was."

Jackson's homer, his eighth of the season, came out of the blue. Cyr had retired six consecutive Warriors and 11 of 12 when Jackson, a righty from Kennewick, Wash., drilled a 1-2 pitch over the wall in left-center.

L-C added an insurance run in the eighth. The Warriors loaded the bases with Zach Holley hitting a leadoff single, Cade Reiten reaching on a bunt when Cyr just missed tagging him out and Raymond Pedrina drawing a walk. Seth Brown then lifted a sacrifice fly to left to score Holley.

The Eagles (41-19) had a few chances get away from them. In the seventh, they had runners on the corners with one out, but Jackson got a strikeout and a groundout to escape.

Jackson retired the first two batters he faced in the eighth, then allowed a single. Robbins came out to visit Jackson on the mound, and after a short conversation, he replaced him with Kerns, the Lewiston High graduate who now has two saves and a win in the tournament.

"I've got an eye test they need to pass every time, and he didn't pass the eye test," Robbins said of Jackson during the mound chat, "and I knew I had Beau Kerns in the bullpen. That made it easy for me."

The Warriors have excelled in elimination games in their three seasons under Robbins. This was their eighth loser-out win of his tenure.

"Today was a good, gutty effort," said Robbins, who came from Western Oregon in the summer of 2012. "That's the thing: We might not always hit, but to have the savvy and the will to win a baseball game ... that's what you like to see."

This was Embry-Riddle's last game in the NAIA ranks; the school's entire athletic program will move into the NCAA Division II realm next school year.

The Eagles' baseball team made 12 trips to Lewiston for the Series since 2002, and the crew from Daytona Beach, Fla., became one of the better-known visiting teams.

And they might not be done with Lewiston just yet. Stegall said the Eagles might come to play the Warriors in May one of the next two years, since they won't be eligible for NCAA postseason play.

"We might come out just to make a trip somewhere and kind of get a taste of it one more time, because we met so many nice people out here," Stegall said. "... Just to kind of taste it again and maybe get some more bite-sized steak one more time."

"Never give up" and "die hard."

Or maybe, don't die at all.

Rodriguez made sure St. Thomas wouldn't, retiring six of his final seven batters after the Bobcat offense mounted a furious rally as the ninth-seeded team from Miami Gardens, Fla., knocked off unbeaten Faulkner 6-3 in 10 innings Wednesday at the Avista NAIA World Series.

St. Thomas, which dropped its Series opener, has reeled off four straight wins since a 12-2 loss to Concordia, and earned a spot in Friday's title game - the Bobcats' opponent to be determined.

Rodriguez, whose stuff is "beyond his years," Perez claimed, faced his tallest order of the tournament in the bottom of the 10th inning - his St. Thomas team holding a comfortable 6-3 lead.

Leading off for second-seeded Faulkner would be Chris Madera, seemingly a shoo-in for the tournament's most valuable player through six days. After going hitless in Faulkner's Series opener, the SSAC's MVP had collected nine hits in three games - three of which came in the first five innings of Wednesday's contest.

"Coach always tells me the last three outs are the hardest to get," Rodriguez said.

Madera, undoubtedly, would be the toughest.

But after falling behind 1-2 in the count, Madera took a crack at a low fastball and popped up to shortstop, giving the Bobcats their first out.

"I just knew if I got him out, then we'll be in good shape," Rodriguez said.

The righty then got the best of Dario Polanco, inducing a popup to first base, but plunked Faulkner catcher Robert Llera, giving the Eagles their final baserunner of the evening.

But the baserunner didn't seem to bother Rodriguez, who put Alexis Torres in a 1-2 hole, then forced Torres into a deep flyout to center field, thus ending the game.

"I was just happy that coach gave me the rock and gave me the opportunity to keep the team in the game," Rodriguez said.

St. Thomas went into the ninth inning trailing 3-0, but got singles from Jerry Downs and Eric Santamaria to lead off the inning, before Steven Fischer was hit by a pitch. All three would come in to score, making it 3-3.

In the top of the 10th, St. Thomas loaded the bases once again and took its first lead of the game when Adam Duarte was nailed, bringing home Andrew Denis. Brandon Canizares then drove a fastball up the middle of the infield, scoring two more St. Thomas runs to make it 6-3 Bobcats.

"That ninth inning shows what we're all about," said Rodriguez, who was credited with the win.

Added Canizares: "We never gave up here, and look at us now, playing for a national championship on Friday."

Perez said his team has shown great resiliency since dropping its opening game on Friday.

"God works in weird ways," said Webb, whose season-opening smash handed Faulkner coach Patrick McCarthy his 400th win.

A 2012 Asotin High grad, Webb started his collegiate career redshirting for hometown Lewis-Clark State before injuring his arm from overuse.

"Dismissed," in his own words, by L-C, he found a new baseball home when he impressed the Faulkner staff during a private tryout held at last year's World Series.

"He's a team player and he wants to win," McCarthy said of Webb, one of two former Warriors listed on the Faulkner roster (junior pitcher Tyler Campbell was also briefly with the L-C program).

"I'm not just saying this from a parental perspective," said Webb's mom, Jackie, "but he's a great kid, and he's got that inner drive to work hard."

After he finishes his business degree, Webb, an upperclassman academically, hopes to embark upon earning his master's while still playing baseball.

Next year, he'll still have three years of eligibility remaining, and "if an opportunity presents itself," said Webb, who owns nearly every Asotin High record, "I want to play baseball until they tell me I can't."

Webb started nine games for Faulkner this year and "since I could walk, it's been my dream to play baseball," Webb added, noting that if the opportunity to keep playing the game after college presents itself, "I'll go for it."

Who knows where the game will take Webb next; he hardly imagined living in the Deep South, where everyone calls pop "Coke," and every food can be fried.

"The other things that threw me off are the way people dress and the hospitality," said Webb, who lamented that in the Northwest, there's no sweet tea.

Assimilating seamlessly, Webb said he has come to adore exploring regional restaurants like Chick-fil-A and New Orleans' Cajun fare.

"I never thought I would end up in Alabama, or even in the South," Webb said, "so it's definitely an experience.

"I'd just worn it by chance and it just stuck," said Yonge, 45.

Yonge's father, Pete, 71, who travels to the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley from Kalispell, Mont., every year for the Series, said the family had been somewhere before the game, and Dan Yonge was wearing a Hawaiian shirt. When they arrived at Harris Field on the Lewis-Clark State College campus, a family friend asked, "What's up with the shirt?"

"That was the first year we got serious about (the Series and shirts)," Dan Yonge said.

The brightly colored, "as hideous as possible" shirts and spending Memorial Day weekend at the ballpark have become a father-son tradition, Dan Yonge said. It's also one that has always included his son, Chris, 17, and more recently, his other son, 10-year-old Garrett.

"They told me it was mandatory," Chris Yonge said. "I didn't really have a choice. I was told if I was going to sit with them I had to (wear a Hawaiian shirt). I didn't argue too much because I thought it was pretty funny."

Dan Yonge said he's never spent more than $5 on one of the shirts, which Chris Yonge described as "obnoxious." The men have about 40 shirts combined, with Dan Yonge possessing 25 and Pete Yonge owning 10.

"I don't have quite as many," Chris Yonge said, "but I'm always on the prowl."

The Hawaiian shirts are a relatively new addition to a longtime love of baseball for the Yonges. Pete and Dan Yonge both started getting into baseball at an early age, and Chris Yonge was "born into it."

Dan Yonge started playing baseball when he was 7 years old and continued until he was in college. He played a couple of years for Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake, Wash., while in school, and at one point, even played against LCSC.

Pete Yonge wasn't much older than his son when his love of the game developed. He said he was 8 years old and living in Alaska. His enjoyment of baseball carried into years of coaching Little League, and presently, a Babe Ruth team in Kalispell.

The Yonges find themselves cheering for the LCSC Warriors, but have also found other teams they enjoy watching throughout the years. They also travel to Phoenix for spring training and Seattle to watch the Mariners.

"This is as good of a venue as you could ever ask for - 12 games in three days," Yonge said of the Memorial Day weekend.

Pete's wife, Helen, and Dan's wife, Kathy, also typically join them and the boys, Chris and Garrett, for some of the games - though neither of the women participate in wearing the "wild" Hawaiian shirts.

Pete and Helen Yonge generally arrive in Lewiston on the Thursday before the Memorial Day weekend and leave Tuesday morning. Sundays are reserved for golf or boating, Dan Yonge said.

Faulkner answered every Warrior salvo with one of its own, and Anderson took the bite out of L-C's lineup during a key three-inning stretch. In a matchup of the last unbeaten teams in the Avista NAIA World Series, the club from Montgomery, Ala., came away with a 12-10 victory.

A crowd of 2,890 gathered at Harris Field for this back-and-forth battle that left Faulkner (51-13) with the most navigable path to the national championship.

The Eagles, who won their first Series crown in 2013, can earn a 2-for-1 shot at the title with a victory over St. Thomas at 6:35 p.m. today. The Warriors (43-12) will face Embry-Riddle in an elimination game at 3:05 p.m.

LCSC racked up three runs in the top of the first and added a five-run spree in the fourth. Those surges included two hits and three RBI from Seth Brown, but also featured back-to-back bunts in the fifth that had Anderson, a lanky right-handed junior, scrambling all over the infield.

But the Eagles answered forcefully when it was their turn to bat. Dario Polanco bashed a two-run homer in the first, and an error by L-C shortstop Cabe Reiten allowed two runs to score in the second. Dennis Morton laced a two-run double in the fourth, and Cody Sos ignited the three-run fifth with a leadoff homer.

It was a wild first half of the game: L-C led 3-0, then Faulkner went up 4-3, then the Warriors jumped ahead 8-4, then the Eagles made it 10-8.

But the pattern was broken when L-C went inexplicably silent in the fifth through seventh innings. Anderson, who was seemingly hanging on by a thread at times early on, retired 12 straight batters and 14 of the last 15 men he faced.

"We kind of backed away from an aggressive approach as the game went," Warriors coach Jeremiah Robbins said. "It was nothing about relaxing in the dugout or anything like that - we just flat backed away from it. I don't know why."

L-C did hash out a late threat. First, Michael Sexton drilled a solo homer in the eighth, then Brown tripled in the ninth and came home on Ty Jackson's infield single.

With Faulkner's lead cut to two runs, up came power-hitting Warrior Max Whitt, who represented the tying run. But Faulkner reliever Alejandro Castro, who worked the ninth for his 11th save of the year, got Whitt to fly out to center to end the game.

Anderson permitted nine hits and nine runs, all but one of which was earned, as he improved to 9-2. But it was his resiliency that was most memorable about this performance.

"We came out here today hungry and we just rode on Phillip's shoulders," Eagles catcher Robert Llera said. "Great ballclub over there in the other dugout, can't take that away from them, but at the same time, we were hungry."

Faulkner finished with 14 hits, led by Chris Madera's 4-for-5 showing. The Eagles scored in six of the eight innings they batted in.

The Warriors ended up using five pitchers, none of whom could pin down the Eagles until Colton Wright retired the last four batters to end the game.

"Plain and simple, you've got to make pitches against good teams, and we didn't make the pitches when we needed them," Robbins said. "They competed though. ... It wasn't from a lack of effort or focus. We just left some pitches up and they were ready for them."

LCSC is accustomed to slugging it out in the losers' bracket. The Lewiston team has won seven elimination games in the last two Series on its way to back-to-back runner-up finishes.

"It's what we knew could happen," Robbins said. "You move on, move forward and get ready for tomorrow. You've got to put this one to bed as quickly as possible and find a way to play them again."

Closer Corey Tufts coaxed Concordia's Robert Shiroky into what should've been a routine ground ball to shortstop Jake Cavender.

First baseman Hunter Bruehl waited anxiously for a throw that never came. Cavender bobbled it, allowing Concordia to plate a run as he tried to recover and scoop up the ball.

He took a look toward first and then noticed the screaming and pointing from teammates.

Concordia's Mitchell Esser took too wide of a turn around third base on the play, allowing Cavender to throw to third base to bind Esser in a rundown and get the final out of a 6-5 Embry-Riddle triumph in an elimination game.

"Everyone was hollering," Bruehl said. "Good thing he was looking. He was heads up, he wasn't worried about the error at all, which is great."

With the result, Concordia was knocked out of the Avista NAIA World Series. ERAU faces Lewis-Clark State today at 3:05 p.m.

The exhilaration ERAU players felt after the victory spoke to the drama of the final frame.

Tufts was all over the place against the first two batters, which began with a walk on a pitch in the dirt to Spencer Nielsen.

ERAU coach Randy Stegall had no patience for that. He immediately made a beeline for the mound after the walk, waving off the catcher in the process and getting face to face with his junior closer.

"It's weird. They're 18 to 22 years old and for some reason they feel like this (situation) is like 'we're going to die' or something," Stegall said. "We play this game to be in these positions. When you see a guy bouncing balls it means he's not enjoying or competing in the moment, he may be a little bit timid there."

His message: Don't you want to pitch on this stage?

If Tufts' play afterward was any indication of his answer, it was an emphatic 'yes.'

Tufts put a curveball on the outside corner to strikeout Neil Lawhorn for the first out. Then he got John Bornhop swinging with a nasty changeup out over the plate for the second out.

"(Stegall) just pretty much told me not to be afraid of the moment, as a pitcher that's what you live for," Tufts said. "You live for the big moment. He told me don't aim it, do what you do."

Tufts recorded the save, allowing ERAU ace Stetson Nelson to get the win. He only allowed one hit through six innings, but six walks marred his effort.

Two dingers from the club which came into the Series with only 15 homers during the regular season ultimately saw the Daytona Beach, Fla., school through.

Enderson Velasquez belted a three-run home run to dead center field in the first inning, his second of the season. Bruehl blasted a solo shot in the sixth to right-center field, almost exactly where he hit one out against Tabor Friday night. It was his second of the season - and the tournament.

"This park is so much different than our park," Stegall said. "Our park is (from left field to right field) 330, 380, 410, 380 and 330 (feet). This is a lot different. A ball like Enderson hit that went out in the first inning, that ball is caught at our park, no question about it. Guys like hitting here."

The Eagles will have to get past the hot-hitting hosts today in order to earn an opportunity to play for the championship.

Faulkner, which led 6-0 after 71/2 innings, conceded four runs in the bottom of the eighth and added one of its own in the top of the ninth - at that point just an insurance run to keep things safe with three outs left.

At least one person on the diamond knew the three-run advantage was anything but.

"Being out here four out of the last five years," Faulkner coach Patrick McCarthy explained, "you see crazier stuff out here then you'll see in three years of normal baseball."

A quick example: "You can't expect a regular ground ball to third to be an out at home."

Of course, McCarthy was referencing the very play that nearly sent Monday's game into extras.

Leading 7-4, Faulkner pitcher Alejandro Castro induced a flyout to open the frame. But AJ Mazzurco singled into center, Tobias Morena was nailed on an 0-2 pitch and Jake Cavender ripped a shot into center, advancing runners to second and third.

The next hitter, Liam Goodall, struck a well-hit grounder to Morton, who fielded it cleanly and fired home. But Morton made a mess of the otherwise routine play throwing into the dirt and underneath the glove of catcher Robert Llera. Mazzurco made it 7-5 and Moreno didn't stop at third, barreling home where Llera's throw from the backstop wouldn't arrive in time.

The mistake also put Goodall, the tying run, on third.

"After the second game typically, you see more of your normal type plays in games as the Series goes on," McCarthy said.. "Those first two games are always shaky."

But the Series, as mysterious as can be, also tends to forgive.

The next hitter, Enderson Velazquez, swung at an 0-2 offering from Castro, turning on the pitch and hitting a ground ball directly to Morton.

Morton, once again, gathered it cleanly. This time, the throw was spot-on, too.

Chris Polanco collected Morton's throw, then rifled to first, barely beating Velazquez to finish off the double play.

"We told D-Mo 'Turn a double play here, next pitch,'" McCarthy said, after Morton's initial error. "That's happened six or seven times this year and so I guess the experience of knowing you make an error, but you're going to get another ground ball to redeem yourself, it changes everything."

Morton, a World Series rookie, said keeping things simple - a motto Faulkner often likes to live by - helped him come through when the Eagles needed him to most.

"That's the whole thing, you have to keep your composure," he said. "You're still playing a game and you're still trying to make a play to win the game. Big game, big win for us."

Morton's play preserved the win for Faulkner starter Christian Torrres, who tossed a shutout through seven innings, before allowing Embry-Riddle its first run in the top of the seventh.

Torres, who allowed just five hits and struck out seven was credited with three earned runs, though only one of those would come when he was on the mound.

"The coach told me, 'Don't quit, we're going to need you in the World Series,'" said Torres, who's of Puerto Rican descent. "Right now I'm here with my teammates, we played together for this win. We're not done yet, we've got more games."

Thus far, Faulkner pitchers have thrown 171/3 innings this tournament, and the Eagles have yet to use All-SSAC first-teamer Victor Arche, the team's No. 2 before McCarthy moved Torres out of the bullpen and made him a full-time starter.

"Christian has professional stuff," said McCarthy, still unsure of whether he'll use Arche today. " It's not going to be Victor, necessarily, it's going to be the matchup."

Morton and leadoff hitter Chris Madera each went 2-for-4, while Madera, the SSCAC Most Valuable Player, drove in two runs for the Eagles.

An announced 2,870 attended Monday's game.

Centeno's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth inning nestled into the glove of Oklahoma Baptist center-fielder Shakeel Newton, but the throw home wouldn't beat a tagging Brandon Canizares, who scored from third and plated the winning run for No. 9 St. Thomas, which came out on top of a 5-4 scoreline against top-seeded OBU Tuesday at Harris Field.

The Bobcats, who have reeled off three straight wins since losing their opener, will play Faulkner at 6:30.

The Bison, meanwhile, exit the tournament with one win and two losses. OBU, ranked second in the nation, wraps up its final season as a member of the NAIA with a record of 53-8.

There were no outs in the bottom of the final inning when Centeno, St. Thomas' nine-hole hitter, stepped into the batter's box with the winning run on third. During the top half of the inning, the Bison had erased a 4-1 deficit, scoring three runs - the last of which came with two outs and with a 1-2 count.

"One more!" a fan blurted out, reminding the Bobcats just how close they were to securing a fifth game at Harris Field.

It wasn't quite that simple for St. Thomas, though. Canizares bobbled a ground ball at third base, which allowed the Bison to knot things up at 4-4.

But as the first STU sophomore to bat in the bottom of the frame, Canizares got an instant shot at redemption.

He sliced a double down the left-field line and got a free pass to third when OBU pitcher Kyle Fimbrez misfired on a pickoff attempt to second.

It simplified the objective for Centeno: Just make contact.

"I was just looking for something I could hit hard and into the air," Centeno said. "Just trying to hit something hard somewhere."

It didn't carry like his fifth-inning shot did, but the fly ball forced Newton to backtrack before making the catch and hurling home. There would be no play at the plate, though, and a cloud of powder-blue shirts dispersed from the home dugout, first swarming Canizares, and then Centeno, who was stationed at first base.

Moments after that, St. Thomas coach Jorge Perez stood in the middle of a team huddle, giving his team a quick reminder: "Check your hearts, check your character."

These Bobcats aren't short on either.

"We have heart, character and we have unselfish players," Perez said.

His starter, Marcos Barrios, showed a lot of the first just four days after being shelled by Concordia in a 12-2 loss that would put St. Thomas on the brink of elimination.

But on Monday, Barrios soaked up the big stage.

St. Thomas' ace went eight full innings and pitched into the ninth, conceding three runs and walking just one.

"I just had a bad outing - it happens, it happens," Barrios said through a teammate's translation, referring to his first Series start. "I felt very comfortable this outing."

OBU starter Taylor Hearn had a no-hitter going into the bottom of the fourth inning, but the tall southpaw walked his first two batters, then balked, allowing runners to advance to second and third. Cesar Ramirez scored on a sac fly, then Paul Chacin came in on an RBI single from Eric Santamaria, making it a 3-0 St. Thomas lead.

The Bobcats went up 4-0 with Cedeno's dinger in the fifth and after OBU scored its first run, in the sixth, neither team scored again until the ninth.

"We've been tested a lot ... I didn't know that we were going to win, but I knew we were going to compete," said Perez, who let out one final roar in the huddle before leaving the diamond.

But Barrios' facial expression was one of dejection. Only because the St. Thomas starter was pulled in the top of a ninth inning he figured he should've finished off. But through eight innings, Barrios was masterful. The righty was tagged for three earned runs, though only one of those when he was on the hill. He allowed six hits, but just four of those came during the first eight frames of an eventual 5-4 St. Thomas win.

"I wanted to finish the game, absolutely," Barrios said, his Spanish translated to English by a St. Thomas teammate.

But four days after the Miami native allowed eight earned runs and nine hits in a 12-2 loss to Concordia, Barrios finally settled in.

And though Lewiston and Harris Field are unfamiliar waters for Barrios, pitching in a national tournament isn't.

"I wasn't nervous at all, last year I pitched three big games for Miami-Dade Community College in the College World Series," Barrios said, "and I did well."

Tuesday afternoon, the 470 in attendance - a handful of which watched St. Thomas' ace struggle through 31/3 innings against Concordia - saw Barrios in his best form.

"I think that throwing on two days' rest in the (NAIA) opening round and giving us so much, I just think he did not recover," St. Thomas coach Jorge Perez said. "He tells you he's fine, but that's tough, two days' rest."

"Then even though he had a week ... the long trip and we came all the way from Miami - and no excuses, but that's tough to come back from that."

Barrios, who has now thrown 108 innings this season, was credited with a no-decision Tuesday, keeping his season record at 9-3.

"What you saw today, that's the guy that we know we have," Perez said.

The STU skipper removed Barrios when Joey Szczepanski's ninth-inning ground ball took an odd hop past third baseman Brandon Canizares, putting Baptist runners on first and third.

"And it was a ball of the end of the bat, so it wasn't like they hit him," Perez noted.

Barrios watched tensely from the dugout as closer Chris Rodriguez allowed both of Barrios' baserunners to score. The Bison scored again when Canizares misplayed a grounder that would trickle into the outfield and allow OBU to tie the game at 4-4.

That's where they were for an afternoon game over the weekend when the Warriors weren't on the roster and plenty of seats were open at Harris Field. St. Thomas was battling with series newcomer Davenport in a loser-out game.

The Hirschels were cheering on Davenport, who had lost to the Warriors the night before. "We have some tendencies to root for the underdog," said Wayne Hirschel. "Nobody can beat the Warriors."

His attention narrowed when one of Davenport's stronger hitters took the plate with no outs. "You can play all day and only have one opportunity," Hirschel said.

Unfortunately for Davenport, the team wasn't able to exploit any opportunities in its second Series game in spite of the Hirschels' support. The Panthers went home after a 8-3 loss.

With the Warriors, Wayne Hirschel remembers the triumphs and the heartbreaks probably as vividly as the team members and coaches. A LCSC season ticket holder, Hirschel listened on the radio when the Warriors were in the tournament in 1983 in Texas. They only needed to win one of two games going into the finals and managed to lose both contests.

That defeat made the Warriors' 1984 first-ever series victory much more meaningful, especially because it was the school's debut as the tournament host, Hirschel said.

The fun for the Hirschels goes beyond baseball and turns into a week-long holiday. Even as he watched the game, Wayne had one eye on a grassy lot just outside the stadium where was going to be joining his friends for a barbecue.

The group is a mix of people from one of their other hobbies, bowling, and Clearwater Paper, where he worked before he retired and always took vacation days for the Series.

The buddies share information about team statistics and what stores have the best deals on gear for the schizophrenic late May weather. They come prepared for everything from stand-clearing downpours to near-freezing temperatures.

This year it's mostly been about beating the heat. They have umbrellas rigged up along the bleacher railings to provide shade and wear sunglasses, hats and sunscreen.

After that, it's just a matter of making sure you're not holding a soda and a bag of peanuts when the fly balls stray into the bleachers, Hirschel said. "The only thing you have to worry about is the left-handed hitters. When they're up, the balls come screaming over here."

"We were able to just survive," said OBU coach Bobby Cox, whose team improved to 53-7 with the win and now plays a loser-out contest at noon today.

It was a contest that seemed far closer than the final score indicated. Some among the 910 in attendance may have asked themselves how the Bluejays came away with just one run - especially after loading the bases four times.

Tabor, which finished its season 54-12, had plenty of opportunities to knock out the tournament's top seed. Over the opening two frames, the Bluejays left six batters on the bags - and they doubled that figure before the contest ended.

While the Bluejays languished, the Bison managed to put single runs on the scoreboard in the second, third, fifth, sixth and seventh innings. They did it by putting runners in scoring postion and them bringing them around with clutch hitting, particularly by right fielder Joey Szczepanski who went 3-for-4 and drove in a run.

The Series top seed, the Oklahoma squad had looked sluggish in losing its opening game, 4-1 to Concordia in a contest that spanned over Saturday and Sunday.

After Monday's game, Cox, while stroking his mustache, admitted that he had been worried about his team's mental state after losing the day before. To alleviate that, Cox said he aimed to give his starter, Thompson, a vote of confidence by avoiding drawing from the bullpen early.

"If you do, you just never know," he said, hinting that he wondered how deep his team wouold be able to go on the mound. "It could end up like a 10-10 game.

"So we knew we had to get something out of Thompson."

And the Bison did. Betting the season on Thompson's ability to mentally recover from two early jams, Cox kept his starter on the mound for 51/3 scoreless innings.

And after throwing his 110th pitch of the afternoon, early in the sixth inning, Thompson happily left with his team sporting a three-run lead. The cushion grew in the next frame when the Bison scored on a passed ball.

It would be 5-0 OBU entering the nither, but the Bluejays wouldn't go quietly

They scored a run with one out when Gadiel Baez singled to center to bring in Dakota Vaughn with two out. They loaded the sacks off reliever Brad Adams and had the tying run at the plate in Matthew Molbury, but Molbury hit a grounder back to the mound and like that, the threat was over.

"My bags aren't packed yet," Adams said, wearing a look of determination upon his face, "so I'm hoping we can stay here for a while."

Tabor pitcher Jean Acevedo did all he could to keep his team in it, going 61/3 innings, while giving up four earned runs.

"Anytime you lose your last game, it's tough," said Tabor coach Mark Standiford, whose team wrapped up its second straight trip to the Series.

Sure enough, Fischer punched a single just underneath the glove of Vanguard shortstop Jose Rojas to score two runs, the decisive blow in St. Thomas' wild 14-10 win on Monday in Game 9 of the Avista NAIA World Series.

St. Thomas of Miami Gardens, Fla., stayed alive in the losers' bracket in front of 630 fans on an overcast morning with light occasional sprinkles. It will face the loser of the Lewis-Clark State-Concordia game today at 3 p.m.

The Bobcats (46-17) survived the ugliest (and longest) game of the national tournament so far. The teams used a Series-record 14 pitchers. Vanguard also set a single-team Series record by shuffling through eight pitchers.

But that wasn't all. The Bobcats and Lions (39-22) combined for nine errors and six wild pitches - three in the bottom of the fifth inning by Vanguard pitcher Michael Jordan.

"Are we better than that? I think so," St. Thomas coach Jorge Perez said. "We are a lot better pitching staff than that, but it just didn't happen. But you know what? I believe in our team and I believe we can come back."

The three-hour, 48-minute contest hinged on the back-and-forth eighth inning.

First, Vanguard right fielder Brock Eissman launched a two-run home run to right-center to even the score at 10-10. Eissman's blast capped the Lions' second major rally of the game.

"I thought we were going to win it (at that point)," Vanguard coach Rob Pegg said.

Twice Vanguard came back from at least three runs down to tie the game. But the Costa Mesa, Calif., club never led, and it never could keep the powerful St. Thomas offense from quickly counterattacking.

The bottom of the eighth started with St. Thomas' three-hitter, Paul Chacin, drawing a full-count walk. Perez replaced Chacin with pinch runner David Quintero, who barely beat the throw to second after a grounder from Downs.

After Quintero reached third with one out on a wild pitch from Sam Frakes, Pegg intentionally walked Eric Santamaria to set up a double play opportunity. But Santamaria promptly stole second, and Pegg declined to put Fischer on board (though he said he would have had the count run to 3-1).

Vanguard infielders moved up to try to stop Quintero from scoring on a grounder, but it was to no avail. Fischer hit the ball just hard and low enough up the middle to get past a charging Rojas.

"It snuck through," Fischer said. "Their pitcher was really good; he was their closer all year. He was giving me all he's got. And it was hard. I just tried to sneak it up the middle, find a nice a little hole and get (Quintero) in."

Fischer, a junior catcher, often pinch hit in game-defining situations as a freshman and sophomore. Perez has come to trust the Gainesville, Fla., native, both to make contact and to drive in critical runs.

None were more critical than bringing in Quintero and Santamaria.

"We knew he was going come up huge," said Downs, who smacked two home runs and scored three runs. "He's been coming up clutch all year, so we knew we was going to come through right there. And after that, (we) just kept coming on."

The Bobcats tacked on two more runs with a bases-loaded walk and run-scoring sacrifice fly.

In addition to its five errors, Vanguard walked eight batters. Four of those free passes came in Jordan's rough fifth inning, when St. Thomas plated four runs with just one hit to go up 9-4.

"We were just struggling a little bit to find the zone," Vanguard catcher Kevin Bettencourt said. "It was just a weird inning."

The Lions responded with three runs in the top of the sixth, starting with an RBI double from Bettencourt. They would keep coming after that, but it wasn't quite enough.

About 10 minutes before Memorial Day ended, LCSC polished off a grinding 7-4 victory over Concordia of California in front of 3,540 spectators at Harris Field.

The Warrior win in Game 12 of the Avista NAIA World Series ended at 11:51 p.m. Monday, and it advanced the hometown team into tonight's 6:30 game against Faulkner. L-C and Faulkner are the only two teams left in the Series who haven't lost.

The Warriors (43-11) got it done with a clutch four-run rally in the seventh and resilient pitching from starter Nick Sagendorf and reliever Beau Kerns.

"Staying out of the losers' bracket, that's our plan going into this thing," L-C coach Jeremiah Robbins said. "Concordia's a quality, quality team, they came in with a lot of momentum, very good arm, very well-coached, it was everything as advertised. It was a hard-fought game."

After not quite capitalizing on numerous chances throughout the game, the Warriors seized the moment in the seventh. They mashed four hits, starting with a chopper single by Raymond Pedrina and a hooking double by Seth Brown that put men on third and second.

After Ty Jackson's strikeout, the Eagles (49-17) opted to intentionally walk Max Whitt to load the bases. Julian Ramon immediately ruined that strategy, smacking a shallow liner into center that nestled in front of the outfielder and allowed two runs to score.

Michael Sexton added a pinch-hit single that plated a run, and the last tally of the spree came when Chase Hafer boldly broke for home on an off-target pickoff throw from Concordia catcher Neil Lawhorn. The outburst put the Warriors up 6-2.

L-C then brought in Kerns for the bottom of the seventh. The senior from Lewiston, who was masterful in a relief appearance Friday, wasn't quite as sharp immediately, as the Eagles parlayed three hits into two runs to cut L-C's lead to two runs.

But Kerns clamped down on the Eagles over the last two innings, allowing no hits and just one baserunner. Kerns finished with five strikeouts and logged his first save of the season.

In the ninth, Max Whitt capped an epic at-bat with a solo homer off the scoreboard in right to give L-C some breathing room. That bumped the Warriors' NAIA-leading homer total to 91.

"When we came in in the eighth inning, we said we needed to get a couple more insurance runs," Whitt said, "so I was up there just trying to battle and he left a pitch over that I could handle, and got a piece of it."

The Warriors started Sagendorf, and he had trouble finding the strike zone early, walking three of the first seven batters he faced while throwing 18 balls in 27 pitches. Yet the right-handed junior from Spokane gradually dialed it in and ended up working six innings, allowing four hits, three walks and two earned runs.

"I can't fully explain it, (but) once you're out there, and you get used to the crowd and the energy and the noise, you really just find yourself," Sagendorf said.

Concordia briefly took the lead with a two-out rally in the fifth. Nine-hole hitter John Doering punched a single into left, then leadoff man Ryan Goodman doubled to plate Doering.

L-C responded in the next half-inning, with Robert Smith's bunt single bringing home a run. That made it 2-2 and set the stage of the Warriors' eruption in the seventh.

Vanguard and St. Thomas also set a single-game Series record by using 14 pitchers in the nearly four-hour game.

"(We) were just bringing in pitcher after pitcher," Lions catcher Kevin Bettencourt said.

Bettencourt had the best vantage point in Harris Field for Vanguard's pitcher parade. He caught the entire game for the Lions, all 187 pitches.

"I was getting tired by the end of the game," Bettencourt said. "I don't know how many balls I blocked, but it was quite a bit."

St. Thomas didn't go through quite as many pitchers as Vanguard - just six - but afterward coach Jorge Perez said he wasn't thinking about keeping arms fresh.

"It could rain all day (Tuesday), so I don't worry about that," he said.

Embry-Riddle spent the better part of seven innings hopelessly trying to simply get runners in scoring positions. They weren't able to do so until the sixth, and couldn't shatter Torres' hopes of a delicious treat until the eighth.

His three pitches were just too nasty.

The 6-foot southpaw dropped down on left-handed hitters and honed in on the outside corner. Right-handed hitters couldn't handle the curveball coming in on their hands.

Nobody had an answer for his changeup coming straight up up the middle. It was whiffs all around.

"Every pitch he's got is a plus pitch and when he's locating nobody can hit him, as you could see this afternoon," Faulkner pitching coach Albert Gertz said.

Only four Embry-Riddle hitters reached base on Torres through the first seven innings while striking out seven.

Embry-Riddle finally broke through on the Puero Rico native after 116 pitches. Jake Cavender squared up a rare pitch out over the plate and lined it back at Torres' hip. The impact sent Torres to the ground as Logan Marphurs crossed the plate for the first Embry-Riddle run.

Torres knew what that meant.

"They know, we've done it all season, if you give up the shutout, you're out," McCarthy said. "...We started giving out treats during the year so he got a Krispy Kreme donut if we got the shutout so we didn't want to give that up."

McCarthy might want to treat his third-starter regardless. If Torres doesn't log in 7 scoreless innings, the Eagles may not have been able to hold on as they did in their 7-6 victory to secure a place in the final game of the winner's bracket.

If Faulkner has dreams of claiming a second Avista NAIA World Series title in three years, pitching is what will get the Eagles there. Torres on Monday was the bridge between sophomore ace Jack Charleston and No. 2 starter Victor Arche, who will get the call today.

He handled that duty like an ace on this night.

A transfer of Indian Hills Community College, Torres had never experienced anything like the stage of Harris Field and a crowd of 2,780 waiting on every pitch.

Nerves crept in before the game, but he knew what was at stake.

"The coach told me 'There's no quit, we're going to need you in the World Series,'" Torres said. "... There's a lot of people. Before I warmuped up I was a little bit nervous, that's in my mind."

He certainly didn't show it. Embry-Riddle couldn't even get a runner into scoring position until the sixth inning. And just because a hitter made it on base doesn't mean he was safe. Torres' smooth pickoff motion sniped out two of the first four runners to reach base.

Besides, the nerves probably played a part in Torres helping Faulkner to advance to the final game of the winner's bracket, guaranteeing the Eagles a spot as one of the last four teams standing.

"I didn't notice (he was nervous, but you're going to be nervous, you want to be nervous," Gertz said. "If you're not nervous then you don't want to be out there."

It's likely Torres will get one more shot this World Series should Faulkner earn its way to the championship round. Surely he'd like another opportunity at a glazed treat.

"Like six to eight inches higher," Adams said, noting that such a stark contrast can wreak havoc on a pitcher's delivery.

"It doesn't sound like a whole lot, but when your body's used to the same timing, over and over, that six to eight inches makes a difference in timing."

Bobcats' Perez influenced by other coaches

Among his coaching mentors, St. Thomas skipper Jorge Perez counts LSU's national-title-winning boss Paul Mainieri.

Mainieri, who coached at St. Thomas from 1984-88, isn't the only Division I coach Perez leans upon for advice.

He also likes to quote Texas coach, Augie Garrido, the winningest coach in college baseball history.

"When he won the World Series with Texas (several years ago), the first question in the interview was, 'How are you feeling? What are you thinking?' And he said, 'I need a shortstop for next year.' "

To Perez, that shows how Garrido tries to avoid focusing on the scoreboard.

The biggest crowd so far was 2,620 for the Davenport/Lewis-Clark State game, which didn't start until 9:05 because of a lightning delay in the previous game. That is also the only game the hometown Warriors have played so far.

The last game of Saturday's session between Oklahoma Baptist and Concordia was postponed because of rain in the fourth inning. The official attendance of the game was the 2,115 figure set Saturday, despite the fact the game concluded Sunday.

It doesn't appear that weather will be a factor during today's four-game Memorial Day slate, which will be capped by LCSC vs. Concordia at 6:30 p.m.

Months ago, he sported an even more rugged look. An old headshot shows Charleston wearing an unkempt beard he'd eventually trim before making his first start.

"I didn't feel like bringing that in the whole year," Charleston explained. "... I just didn't think I could handle it."

Certainly, Charleston's image plays a role in his mystique.

He's listed at 6-foot-5, but weighs just 170 pounds - and that was before he chopped off the Neanderthalian beard.

"You'll see him he'll be out of the dugout, he'll be the first guy out in shorts and fluorescent shoes and socks," Faulkner coach Patrick McCarthy said. "He's just easygoing, surfer-type, hang-loose man."

Living in the heart of Alabama, Charleston might be a little out of place.

But he isn't lost - at least, not anymore.

A Gainesville, Fla., transplant, Charleston has finally found a home in Montgomery, and at Faulkner.

After bouncing around from school-to-school - Faulkner is his fourth - he hopes this landing spot will prove more permanent than the previous three.

"It kinda stuck," Charleston said Saturday after making his Avista NAIA World Series debut, a 4-1 win that saw Faulkner's No. 1 go the distance for his 10th win of the season.

"I really love it here," he said. "... Everyone wants to play for a winning team. When (recruiting coach Travis Watson) contacted me, it was pretty much a go from there."

Before signing with Faulkner, Charleston played one season at Santa Fe College in Gainesville. Before Santa Fe, he spent a year at Florida State College at Jacksonville and, prior to that, Charleston attended NCAA Division II Flagler.

"I really loved it there," he said of the St. Augustine, Fla., school.

But Charleston couldn't stay eligible and encountered similar problems on the diamond.

As a Flagler Saint, he recorded a 1-7 record, compiling a 5.55 ERA.

At Faulkner, though, Charleston has been able to reverse that first number, while the second has dipped substantially.

With Saturday's win, he's now 10-1, carrying an ERA of 1.14.

"We knew from the pro scouts that he was a horse," McCarthy said. "We knew he had a real loose arm, he had good sink."

Loose is probably the adjective that best fits Charleston - both off the field and on it.

His trips from the dugout to the mound are leisurely strolls, rather than profound marches. Saturday afternoon, he cracked a smile after leaving a fastball over the plate, which resulted in a Vanguard hit.

"I tell people, he's as loose as his arm is loose," McCarthy said.

By the same token, Charleston is a gamer with a competitive edge that rivals that of his teammates.

"What's funny is it's rare to find that combination of that guy who's loose like that," McCarthy said, "but has that fire and competitiveness you want, that you see in most bulldog type of guys."

And Charleston assures: "The competitive side usually takes over."

In 95 innings this season, Charleston has conceded just 11 earned runs.

He's not obsessed with the strikeout, though he's fanned 81 batters, only walking 17.

"He wants to pitch to contact," McCarthy said. "He doesn't care anything about the strikeout, he just wants to force guys to hit balls on the ground."

Saturday, it was the slider that lured Vanguard hitters.

A pitch that broke just 6-8 inches in the fall, the slider now moves 10-12 inches, McCarthy noted.

And right now, "It's real tough," the coach said.

Catcher Robert Llera, tighter with Charleston than anybody on the Faulkner roster - "He's my brother," Llera affirms - hopes his batterymate can be a difference-maker for the Eagles in the coming week, which will decide whether Faulkner will flame out of the Series a game or two early, like it did last year, or replicate its 2013 finish: a national championship.

"I'll fight to the end with my guys and he's one of them that won't let up for nobody," said Llera, a senior who joined Charleston on the All-Southern States Athletic Conference Gold Glove team. "He's giving us a heck of a run this year and I can't wait to see what he's got for us in store for the next couple weeks."

Added Llera: "You deal with a lot of adversity when you play this game and the situations you've just got no control over and you've just got to do whatever's in your power."

There's little doubt that Faulkner was well worth the wait for Charleston.

"Our coaching staff is amazing, they treat us like professionals," he said.

And Charleston, without question, was worth the wait for the Eagles. They're 16-1 in games he's appeared in.

"He's loose and he takes that to the mound and loosens all of our guys up," McCarthy said.

The Faulkner ace will be restricted to a bench role today when the Eagles play Embry-Riddle at 3 p.m.

It's OK, he thrives there too.

"Making sure they keep their heads up no matter what happens is a big part of my job when I'm not pitching," Charleston said. "I put that on my shoulders and I try to push them even when I'm not playing to be their best."

And, indeed, coaches would probably love it if their teams played each game as though the very sport itself would be disbanded at the end of the contest.

Secretly, the coach isn't taking it one game at a time - or at least he isn't if he knows what he's doing. It's his job to think two or three moves ahead.

That is why the decision made Friday night by Lewis-Clark State baseball coach Jeremiah Robbins was so interesting. The third-year boss was most definitely zeroed in on the Warriors' opener in the Avista NAIA World Series - but he also had the big picture in mind.

Robbins sent out No. 1 starting pitcher Ty Jackson to face Davenport, and then in the sixth, with the Panthers seemingly about to draw a bead on Jackson, the Warriors replaced him with No. 2 starter Beau Kerns.

Kerns was magnificent. The right-handed Lewiston High graduate barreled through the Davenport lineup like a runaway coal car, working at his usual brisk pace and peppering the strike zone with his full arsenal of pitches. He didn't allow a hit or a run and permitted just one baserunner, who reached on a walk.

"I thought Beau matched up pretty good with their hitters," Robbins said, "but Beau matched up pretty good with what the mentality of the game was."

And with the 5-foot-10 bulldog on the mound, L-C's hitters seemed to approach their jobs with renewed urgency. Robert Smith Jr.'s pinch-hit triple to start the sixth led to the Warriors' lead-taking run, and in the seventh, Seth Brown parked his 23rd home run to spark a three-run rally in what became a 6-2 LCSC win.

"When (Kerns) comes out in a competitive moment, guys want to play behind him, guys want to get in the batter's box and score him some runs," Robbins said. "It definitely changed the game, attitude-wise. Not that they weren't competing for Ty. The game just kind of hit a little bit of a wall there, and Beau got us over the hump."

Before the Series started, Robbins said his team was "all in on Game 1," which meant every pitcher on the roster was put on alert. And the Warriors ended up calling on their top two hurlers.

They took "taking it one game at a time" to the nth degree.

What if the gamble had backfired? What if Davenport would have won, even with two LCSC aces on the table? The Warriors would have played a loser-out game Saturday, facing the possibility of a two-and-barbecue showing for just the second time in the program's illustrious Series history.

Instead, the victory gave the Warriors two days off and kept them in the top part of the bracket. Fourth-seeded LCSC will tangle with eighth-seeded Concordia at 6:30 tonight.

In Robbins' first two seasons, L-C lost on Saturday in the Series both years, then proceeded to battle its way into the championship round in both tournaments. But the Warriors' pitching staff was gassed after running that gantlet, and they settled for a runner-up finish both times.

In this Series, Robbins was apparently bent on avoiding an early stumble and, perhaps, keeping his pitching staff more rested as the tournament proceeds. That is the big-picture aspect of his decision Friday.

If the Warriors follow their rotation, right-handed junior Nick Sagendorf will get the start today. But after Kerns threw just 45 pitches Friday, it wouldn't be surprising to see him play some role today.

I can't recall another team in the Series throwing their top two starters in the first game of the tournament. It seemed to pay off, though it remains to be seen if there will be a ripple effect on L-C's rotation as the Series continues.

• l l

After eight games in the 2015 Series, no team has cut itself apart from the pack. It's not at all like last year, when Cumberland won its first two games by a combined 16-2 score and entered Memorial Day looking like the favorite for the national championship, which it did end up winning.

Concordia is the only 2-0 team and can earn a 2-for-1 shot at the title with three more wins. Of course, that's a lot to ask.

Besides the Eagles from California, LCSC, Embry-Riddle and Faulkner are the other teams that haven't lost yet in the tournament. In all but two of the 15 Series at Lewiston since 2000, the champion has been one of the teams still unblemished on Memorial Day

We ain't shy, we just begin-in

Hey, we not done

We over here just trying to have some fun, like.

Hey, we're far from done.

We going every day, we gettin' more runs..."

- Excerpt from impromptu rap by Concordia pitcher Robbie Ingram on Sunday

---

Wild 'n out like Nick Cannon in the dugout, the Concordia Eagles keep themselves loose by singing, dancing and even rapping.

"But that's the thing," said Concordia coach Mike Grahovac, a self-described country guy. "I love country music.

"So when they start doing all this rap stuff, that's when it's time for me to get up and move out of there, so it's kind of funny."

Wrapping up a delayed contest from the night before, the Eagles didn't miss a beat when they picked up in the fourth inning and rallied for a 4-1 win over the tournament's No. 1 seed, Oklahoma Baptist, Sunday at Harris Field.

"The stress (of the World Series) isn't getting to these guys at all," Grahovac said, noting that when he played, baseball players would never have sung and danced in the dugout. But he reasons that if it keeps his guys loose, it must be a good thing.

"And it's fun to coach."

Fun's the name of the game for the Eagles, who often get told to pipe down by bus drivers, stewardesses and anybody else who wishes the singing would stop after 11 p.m.

So who has the best voice on the team?

"I'd say Kyle Jones is probably the best singer on the team whether it's hop-hop, R&B, country, whatever," said one of the Eagles' first basemen, Dan Shine.

Added the other Concordia first baseman, John Bornhop: "If we're throwing in some Blink-182, I'd have to go with Atlee Schwab, our third baseman, because he nails every single word."

"And if we're talking about dancing," piped in outfielder Bobby Shiroky, "I've definitely got that wrapped up.

"That's all me," added Shiroky, who likes to fist pump. "I'm from Vegas, so I like to jump around a little bit, get my hand in the air and wave it around. It's all I've got."

And of course, if the team needs someone to rap, they go to Ingram, who gets a beat from infielder Spencer Nielsen.

"There's a time and a place when you're all about business on the field," Nielsen said, "but then, when a time (to relax) presents itself and you can just be with your brothers in the dugout, why not just enjoy the moment?

"Yeah, we're at the World Series, on a big stage, but if we can be with each other as much as possible, that's the real fun."

The umpires immediately waved the teams off the field in the bottom of the fourth inning when the first drops started to fall. They probably had a hunch not only the clouds had already been on their way, but more would continue to come.

Large pockets of water formed on the tarp sprawled across the infield and puddles formed in the exposed pockets of shallow outfield grass.

After a near 90-minute delay, both head coaches agreed with the assessment of the NAIA during a brief meeting on the field - conditions were too dangerous to continue play Saturday night.

The teams will resume from where they left off today at 1 p.m. No. 1-seeded OBU will inherit its 1-0 lead over No. 8-seeded Concordia with nobody on base and two outs in the inning. OBU third baseman Landon Coon will be at the plate with an 0-1 count.

Admission will be free for any fans who wish to attend.

"The committee felt that player safety was an issue," NAIA spokesman Alan Grosbach said. "The time it would take to get the field ready, it would put it late enough it might be detrimental to the team's chances to stay healthy from a sleep perspective and be able to advance throughout the Series."

No games were originally scheduled to be played today, providing a convenient time slot for the game to be resumed.

"Since both coaches agreed it was a better option to rest and come (today) that's another piece of why the decision was made the way it was," Grosbach said.

The 2,115 in attendance were witnessing the makings of arguable the Series' best game thus far. Bison ace Kelvin Rivas held the Eagles - who had scored 12 runs in Friday's win over St. Thomas - scoreless through four. Conversely, Concordia's No. 2 starter, Dillon Moran, was in the process of holding OBU's potent lineup to only one run.

Rivas wiggled out of a jam every inning, holding the Eagles to 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. The senior threw nearly 60 pitches through four but seemed to find his best stuff with Concordia runners in threatening positions.

On the other side, Moran shrugged off a one-run first inning and was in the midst of his second 1-2-3 inning when the game was called.

Both pitchers will be resting their arms when play resumes this afternoon.

"He was done," OBU coach Bobby Cox said of Rivas. "We weren't going to bring him back even if we did restart. He's got a future ahead of him, he'll be a high draft choice and he had some trouble adjusting with the mound and command. He wasn't as sharp as he normally is."

Cox had no qualms calling it a night considering what happened last year. Lightning delays during the Bison's contest against eventual-champion Cumberland turned a tie game into a 13-5 defeat with the last out being recorded at 1:06 a.m.

This time around, he decided a reset would be best.

"I think it was a good decision tonight to go ahead and bag it and start again in good weather because the stopping and starting, that's kind of what we got into last year with Cumberland," Cox said. "Then pitchers getting ready and then it just turned into a disaster. I think it was a good decision by the Games Committee to pull it."

Concordia coach Mike Grahovac similarly noted a competitive advantage which would be drawn from the situation. His Eagles followed Embry-Riddle's model from the night before and spent their down time in the dugout playing around and showing off their vocal cords. Grahovac surmises it could help him find the spark Concordia had in 2011 when it won the Series as a No. 9 seed.

Still living on the brink of elimination, the Miami Gardens, Fla., squad will return to the diamond Monday to face Vanguard, another team sporting a loss in this double-elimination tournament.

Though he didn't get credit for the win on Saturday, Alex Viera's clutch performance on the mound steadied the Bobcats after he stranded three Panthers on base late in the game, deflating Davenport's comeback.

Though the reliever ceded a pair of runs on a bloop fly and a hit batter upon entering in the seventh, Viera then induced two flyouts and a groundout in successive order to keep his team ahead 4-3.

And from there, the Bobcats (45-17) tacked on plenty of insurance.

In the top of the ninth, St. Thomas' Eric Santamaria stole home, the first successful home steal in a Series since 2010.

And before that, the Bobcats' Steven Fischer slapped a two-run single to further pad the cushioning afforded by Paul Chacin's dribbler up the middle earlier in the final frame.

"Listen," Perez said, commenting on the steal home, "we just got very, very lucky.

"Yeah," laughed Santamaria, agreeing with his coach that his team benefitted from luck on the steal home. "(Their catcher) just dropped it."

Alternating two-seam fastballs and changeups to consistently throw first-pitch strikes, STU starter Alex Hernandez worked the first six innings, handcuffing the Panthers as St. Thomas built a 4-1 lead. But the moment he left the contest, Davenport (51-12) began to seize the momentum, getting multiple hits in a frame for the first time of the game and setting the stage for Viera, who got a hug from his coach after parrying the rally.

"We're going to stay here as long as possible," said Perez, who added he feels his team came to Lewiston on a mission. "Whatever happens, the only one who can predict that is the good Lord.

Longworth, a left-handed senior, pounded the strike zone mercilessly and ended up crafting a complete-game, five-hit shutout to lead the Bluejays to a 2-0 victory over the Blue Raiders in the Avista NAIA World Series.

The elimination game, which drew 450 spectators to Harris Field on a sunny Saturday morning, moved Tabor (54-11) into the noon game Monday. Lindsey Wilson's first appearance in the Series ended quickly with a pair of losses within 24 hours of each other, and the Blue Raiders will return to Columbia, Ky., with a final record of 41-19.

Longworth heaved just 89 pitches, 65 of which were strikes. He didn't walk any LWC batters, but that's nothing remarkable: He has walked just six batters all season in 982/3 innings.

"My four years through college, I've kind of built up a reputation for throwing strikes," Longworth said. "That's what I pride myself on. I've had six walks through the year, and I'd like to keep it that way."

His strategy does keep Tabor's defenders busy, and they responded with four double plays. Thanks to those runner-erasing gems, Longworth ended up facing a total of 28 batters, just one over the minimum.

In the eighth, when Lindsey Wilson got a one-out single from Steven Paredes, Longworth induced the next batter into a grounder to shortstop, and the Bluejays turned that into a 6-4-3 double play, with first baseman Colton Flax making a nice snag on a low relay toss.

Tabor defenders did commit two errors - those gaffes led off the first and fourth innings - but immediately made amends by turning double plays against the next batter.

"He's going to get a lot of groundballs, he's going to keep your infield engaged, which is good," Bluejays coach Mark Standiford said of Longworth. "He's going to give up a few hits every now and then, but it doesn't matter just because he throws so many strikes."

Tabor got all the offense it needed in the first. Michael Baca led off with a single, then moved to third when LWC committed an error on what could have been a double play groundball. The third batter, Alex Couch, did hit into a double play, but Baca managed to score.

In the sixth, Couch led off with a single, then was driven home on Matt Molbury's double. That made it 2-0, and that's where it stayed.

The Bluejays created other chances - certainly more than they had when they were limited to three hits in a 9-1 loss to Embry-Riddle on Friday - but couldn't cash them all in.

The closest call came in the third, when Baca tried to score from second on Couch's single into left field. It appeared Baca was at least close to slipping his hand between the legs of LWC catcher Russ Morse and touching home before Morse could apply the tag, but the umpire ruled Baca out.

Standiford asked the umpires if Morse had illegally blocked the plate, and after a discussion, the umps upheld their call.

But for Faulkner and coach Pat McCarthy, Lewiston is becoming more of a vacation home.

Other than the host LCSC Warriors, McCarthy's Eagles - from Montgomery, Ala. - are the only team making their third consecutive Series appearance. And Faulkner has made the trip four times in the last five years - also an unprecedented feat.

By comparison, the Eagles' first opponent at the 2015 Series, Vanguard, hadn't made the trek since 1985.

But such an arduous task has been made simple by the 2013 national champs, who dispatched the Lions 4-1 Saturday after earning a first-round bye as the tournament's No. 2 seed.

"They realize, you don't have to be a robot, you don't have to be a machine to play this game," McCarthy said.

And you don't have to be on your home turf to play your best ball.

"It's still baseball, it's still fun and our motto has been: 'The same game,' " he said.

Meaning regardless of the venue, regardless of the opponent, the Eagles stick to the basics - the fundamentals they were taught as youngsters learning America's pastime.

"It's still baseball, it's still fun," McCarthy said.

Earlier in the season, Faulkner players embraced an opportunity to share the catchphrase with a select group of fans.

The team was invited to join in on a bingo session with local veterans.

As McCarthy would explain, "the guy says 'same game' and the veterans yell back 'same game!' "

A group of the same veterans - around 30, according to McCarthy - would attend Faulkner's Southern States Athletic Conference tournament game against Auburn-Montgomery.

As the Eagles were stretching and warming up, the group of fans yelled out, in unison: "Same game!"

"(The players) all yelled back 'Same game!' " McCarthy said. "So the last 10-12 games, we've all looked each other in the eye and said it, 'Guys, it's the same game wherever you go.' "

So far, so good for the Eagles, who need to win twice more to advance into the championship round. And Faulkner is itching to get back.

"It was just a bad taste in my mouth from last year," said catcher Robert Llera, who was on the 2014 team that won its Series opener, before dropping consecutive games. "Just a bad taste, having to fly back home with that sour taste in my mouth that we were left with."

But the past is the past and Faulkner has since embraced another motto to help the Eagles move forward from last year's shortcomings.

Longworth allowed just five hits in a wire-to-wire effort in Tabor's 2-0 victory in the Avista NAIA World Series at Harris Field.

Longworth - the name seems apt for the lanky, 6-foot, 150-pound lefty - cocks the ball well behind his head before flinging it to the plate with a whip-like motion. The similarity to Bumgarner's motion is obvious to baseball fans.

"I've been told that many times," Longworth said. "When I was in high school and I saw (Bumgarner) pitch for the first time, it all just clicked. Before that, Randy Johnson was my guy - that was the guy I looked to, because I had similar mechanics. And then once Madison Bumgarner came into the league, that was the guy I looked up to ever since then."

And as pivotal as Bumgarner was to the Giants' World Series triumph this past fall, Longworth has been just as pivotal for the Bluejays this postseason. They won the Bellevue Bracket to qualify for the Series with Longworth winning two games, including the championship contest.

"Basically he got us here," Tabor coach Mark Standiford said of Longworth.

Most striking about Longworth's numbers - aside from his 2.28 earned-run average and 12-3 record - is the fact he has allowed just six walks all season.

"I just like throwing strikes," Longworth said. "I don't like to put guys on for free, like to challenge them at the plate and let my defense do their job."

Longworth got a swinging strikeout from Lindsey Wilson's Alex Bautista to end the game, and the Tabor senior immediately ran a finger over his mustache, then flung his hand toward his team's dugout.

It's a ritual he and twin brother Thomas Longworth, also a Bluejays pitcher, have done since high school in Waterford, Calif.

"That's how we wrap up every game, me or my brother," Russell Longworth said. "Most of the time, he's relieving for me - a Longworth-for-Longworth switch. ... That's just the way we sign off."

The NAIA World Series and the Lewis-Clark State College Warriors' perennial involvement in the tournament was a family tradition for them. They started attending when the brothers were just boys. Prior to the construction of the LCSC Activity Center, Jake and Corey would shag foul balls that ended up in the parking lot there. The baseball tradition continued as Corey, 28, and Jake, 25, entered adulthood.

"This was definitely the biggest reoccurring thing that we did," Corey said.

A brick layer by trade, Chris Mathews was badly injured in a 1997 construction accident that left him with four titanium plates and several screws holding his spine together. Unable to work and less able to engage in the outdoor activities he held dear, baseball and especially the series provided him with an escape.

"Him getting hurt hit him hard for a little bit, but having a release like this helped," Jake said. "What hurt him most of all was not being able to work. He couldn't do much toward the end, but he could still come out here."

The seats behind home plate were their spot early on. But the bleachers and their lack of back support, prior to the Harris Field remodel, made it tough for their father to take in games. About four years ago, their dad jumped at the chance to snag prime seats on the right field line. The view is better there and the chairs made him more comfortable.

"Sometimes we didn't know if we could afford them, but we made it happen," Jake said. "He knew a lot of people up here, and it was his favorite spot."

The brothers don't know if they will keep the seats now. But they plan on putting them to good use this year, cheering on the Warriors and other teams, and visiting with people who knew their dad.

"This might be the last year we have these seats," Jake said. "I might not be able to afford it. This is pretty much the last hurrah in his memory."

The wake was attended by dozens of friends and family members, and like many end-of-life celebrations, consisted of reflecting on good times and funny stories. The brothers said their dad didn't want people to sit around and grieve. So they had T-shirts with their dad's picture and the phrase "Always remembered, never forgotten," printed on them.

Over the next week, they intend to watch as many games as they can, just like dad would have wanted.

Brown's homer, his NAIA-leading 23rd of the season, ignited a pressure-releasing three-run surge in the seventh, which propelled the Warriors to a 6-2 win over Davenport of Michigan on Friday night.

A crowd of 2,620 gathered at Harris Field for LCSC's debut in the Avista NAIA World Series, and they saw Warriors coach Jeremiah Robbins fulfill his pre-tournament vow to pull out all the stops to win this game.

Ty Jackson, who became L-C's top starter during the second half of the season, worked the first five innings, giving up four hits and two runs, both earned.

And then in the sixth, the Warriors brought in Beau Kerns, the Lewiston High graduate who was L-C's top starter before Jackson nudged by him in the rotation. Kerns, a senior, evoked memories of his shutdown relief performance in the 2014 Series, allowing no hits, walking one and striking out six over the last four frames. The walk the righty allowed was the Panthers' only baserunner against Kerns.

It was a bold move, considering Jackson and Kerns won't be completely fresh come L-C's next game. But the Warriors (42-11) earned two off days with this victory, and will next play in the tournament Monday evening against the winner of tonight's Concordia-Oklahoma Baptist game.

"Beau was in my plans going into it, and the opportunity was there, so we went with it," Robbins said.

After three weeks of idle time, the third-year coach expected his hitters to be a bit rusty, and they were. The Warriors smacked six hits in the first six innings, but let a few prime scoring chances die on the vine.

But L-C did scramble successfully. In the second, Cameron Pongs struck out swinging on a wild pitch, and he was able to hustle to first and Andris Rizquez zipped in from third to score the Warriors' first run. Later in the inning with two outs, Zach Holley, another Lewiston High graduate, smashed an infield single of the foot of Davenport pitcher Brendan Bender, and that scored another run.

Another wild pitch from the Panthers in the sixth allowed another Warrior run, which made it 3-2.

But by the seventh, L-C's lineup appeared to find a groove. It started with Brown, a left-handed slugger from Medford, Ore., uncoiling on a pitch from Davenport's Jonathan Cheshire and launching it over the wall in right.

After Cheshire, a sidearmer, fired a pitch in the dirt, Brown expected the next one to be over the plate, and indeed it was.

"The second half of the game, this whole team, we really had a focus on seeing the ball and putting good wood on it and putting pressure on the defense," Brown said.

Later in the inning, Pongs and Michael Sexton smacked run-scoring hits to build some cushion in what had been a tense battle.

The Warriors have advanced to the national championship game in each of Robbins' first two seasons, but this will be the first time one of his clubs won't have a Series loss come Memorial Day.

"I don't know what they're planning on doing," Kerns said. "I could see them putting me in relief the rest of the tournament. I could see them starting me at some point. I'm ready to go. I'm ready to rock."

Kerns threw four hitless innings to polish off the Panthers, who were making their first Series appearance. The 5-foot-10 senior, a Lewiston High grad, allowed one baserunner on a walk and needed just 45 pitches (31 of which were for strikes) to close out the game.

He struck out the side in the eighth and finished with six punchouts.

Robbins said afterward that he could start Kerns or Nick Sagendorf on Monday when L-C returns to action.

"He's fine," the third-year coach said of Kerns. "He can pitch all day long any day."

When Kerns replaced No. 1 starter Ty Jackson to start the sixth, Jackson had only thrown 72 pitches and given up four hits. He wasn't exactly teetering, but he had yielded a solo home run to Brandon Cable to start the fifth that knotted the score at 2-all.

Robbins said before the Series that the Warriors were "all in" for Game 1. Everyone on the pitching staff was on alert.

He wasn't kidding.

"We wanted this game, absolutely," Kerns said. "To me, it doesn't really matter. My arm, it doesn't get sore, almost ever."

Kerns took control immediately, striking out Davenport cleanup hitter Matt Priebe on three pitches to start his outing. The rest of the way, he worked fast and said he felt completely at ease. It helped that he had control of his curveball and slider.

"It was just relaxing," Kerns said. "You get out there and you go and throw and we've prepared all year for this anyway so I can go out and just do it, you know? Go make it happen."

That's when Tabor's Alex Couch stroked a single up the middle, jilting history but hardly altering its trajectory in a 9-1 victory for the school from Daytona Beach, Fla. Friday at Harris Field.

After giving up his first of three hits, Nelson toiled another inning and a third, throwing 105 pitches total and helping the Eagles build an insurmountable eight-run cushion as he earned his 10th win of the season.

"I wasn't really thinking about the no-hitter," Embry-Riddle coach Randy Stegall claimed, later admitting the idea of a no-no did creep into his mind briefly.

"But against a team that's hitting .350," he added, referring to the free-swinging Bluejays, "you don't really expect a no-hitter."

With his previous team, Winthrop, an NCAA Division 1 school located in South Carolina, Nelson's longest outing lasted all of 20 pitches. But playing for Stegall - a disciple of Cumberland skipper Woody Hunt, who loves letting his starters work deep into games - Nelson routinely gets to throw more than 100 pitches per outing.

And that suits him just fine since he relies more upon placement than power, with four different offerings that tend to induce batters into flyouts and groundouts.

Though he only struck out four on Friday, Nelson kept Tabor off-balance all game. And in his last four games, Eagles catcher Ryan Maxon noted, "(Nelson's) been unhittable."

Well, almost. As the game wore on, Tabor, a team that ranks No. 5 in the NAIA in slugging percentage, grew more comfortable judging Nelson's off-speed pitches.

But by the time they finally scored their first run against Nelson, on a sacrifice groundout in the bottom of the seventh, the Bluejays found themselves fighting an uphill battle against a team desperate to make a mark in its last World Series appearance.

"This is our last crack at an NAIA championship," said Nelson, noting that his team will move up to the NCAA Division II level next year.

Packwood's preparation was for Friday's ceremonial first pitch at the Avista NAIA World Series at Lewis-Clark State College. The 12-year-old Asotin Middle School student won the "Score a Hit with Reading" essay contest for the opportunity to take the mound at Harris Field and officially kick off the Series.

"Some of my friends told me I should throw a curve ball, but I was like, 'I'm pretty sure that will end up in the dugout,' " Packwood said in the morning before his pitch.

Packwood, a sixth-grader, said he was initially a little skeptical about his essay. The contest required students from Lewiston, Clarkston and Asotin to read the book "Hitting Glory" by Robert Skead and write a one-page essay. "Hitting Glory" is about 11-year-old Lou Gibson, who finds an old wooden baseball bat that once belonged to famous baseball player Lou Gehrig. Packwood said Gibson turns out to be an awesome hitter with the bat, but he's bullied by another kid named Justin Rivers.

"I thought it was pretty interesting," Packwood said of the book.

He decided to write his essay about ways to handle, prevent and stop bullying, while drawing on examples from the book. Packwood said there is another character, Tanya, who stands up for Gibson against Rivers, and he thought she was a character who should be recognized for all the good she did.

"She wasn't (Gibson's) friend previously, but she saw that he was being bullied by Justin so she stepped in," Packwood said.

Packwood's essay was one page, front and back, and it wasn't until his teacher selected his essay to enter into the contest that he thought there was a chance he could win. But he still thought it was a long-shot because so many other students participated.

"I just don't know why, I just couldn't stop smiling," Packwood said of his reaction to winning the overall contest. "I was just so happy. I almost passed out."

Packwood learned a lot from the book and the success of his essay has improved his confidence when it comes to writing. He learned to appreciate his friends after reading about how Gibson got angry at his friend for cracking the wooden baseball bat, and that there are consequences from taking the anger out on other people.

He also learned more about Gehrig. Packwood said he knew of Lou Gehrig's disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, but he didn't know why it was called that or much else about the legendary baseball player. The book was interesting to him because it was fictional, but also had facts about Gehrig and baseball.

"I just knew his name. I didn't really know who he was," Packwood said.

Packwood's parents, Mandy and Bill, were also excited for him to throw the first pitch. He said the importance sunk in when his dad told him it was something he always wanted to do. That's when Packwood realized throwing out the first pitch was "a pretty cool opportunity" that a lot of other kids - and even some adults - never get the chance to do.

"We hit when we have to, basically," said coach Mike Grahovac, whose team came into the Series batting .280 with just 366 runs scored - a number that ranks second-to-last among tournament participants.

But Friday, Concordia had to hit, and the Eagles did much more than that. They splurged.

Shelling out 19 hits, No. 8 Concordia of Irvine, Calif., guaranteed it won't leave the Lewis-Clark Valley before the weekend's end, beating St. Thomas 12-2 in front of 610 fans at Harris Field.

The Eagles (48-16) will play top-seeded Oklahoma Baptist at 6:30 p.m. today, while St. Thomas, from Miami Gardens, Fla., will meet Davenport (51-11) at noon today in a loser-out contest.

All nine of Concordia's starters delivered at least one hit and sophomore Spencer Nielsen dished out four, knocking in two runs and scoring three himself.

"As an organization, we just emphasize hunting and attacking and being aggressive," Nielsen said. "... Today we just saw the ball over the plate and put good swings on it."

St. Thomas swung first, though, scoring one run in the first inning to take its only lead of the game. Cesar Ramirez roped a one-out single through the right side of the infield, then scored all the way from first when Paul Chacin lined a 0-2 pitch into right field that would tail away from Eagles right fielder Robert Shiroky.

"We're a good hitting club, we just didn't string them together," St. Thomas coach Jorge Perez said. His team would rack up nine hits, chalking up one each inning in seven of the last eight innings.

Whereas Concordia did the exact opposite.

After John Doering popped out to start the third, leadoff man Ryan Goodman took four straight balls and the next four Eagles - Nielsen, Mitchell Esser, Neil Lawhorn and John Bornhop - ripped singles off St. Thomas No. 1 Marcos Barrios. Two batters later, Atlee Schwab smoked a double to clear the bases and give the home team its fifth run of the inning.

"We hit a couple balls hard, then we hit a couple of balls kind of in the bleeders, the empty areas," Grahovac said. "But when you start getting those, it becomes contagious."

The fourth inning was almost a mirror image of the third for Concordia.

Doering, again, recorded the first out. Five Eagles, then, reached via base hits. Shiroky concluded Concordia's second barrage with a sacrifice fly to center, plating the Eagles' third run of the inning.

Concordia tacked on a single run in the sixth and one more in the seventh, creating a 12-2 scoreline that would've invoked the mercy rule a year ago. The NAIA has since done away with the 10-run rule.

"The way that game was going, you could see it, it was going to be a tough day," said Perez, who removed Barrios in the fourth inning and burned through four more arms by the time all was said and done. "I don't believe in bad days and good days, I'm not one of those coaches. We just didn't play well today, they did."

Schwab's three RBI led all players. Concordia's Mitchell Esser went 3-for-5 with a double, while St. Thomas' Eric Santamaria was 2-for-4 with a double and a triple.

The 19 hits and 12 runs were uncharacteristic for Concordia, which came into the Avista NAIA World Series hitting just .280 as a team, lowest among Series qualifiers and, aside from Vanguard (.285), the only average below. 305.

But the Eagles were indeed systematic in their offensive approach and the Concordia system never crashed in a 12-2 win that sent the Eagles soaring past St. Thomas in a first-round affair at Harris Field.

On four occasions, the Eagles wove together consecutive hits. In the third inning, Concordia's 2-5 hitters reeled off four straight singles and in almost identical fifth, the same players - this time leadoff batter Ryan Goodman joined the fray - knocked five consecutive singles.

"When you're successful, it's going to carry over and be contagious for your squad," said Concordia shortstop Spencer Nielsen, who finished 4-for-5 on the afternoon. "... As a team, we try to focus on letting the game tell us what to do."

Friday, it came loud and clear for Concordia: Stay ahead in the count and take a jab at anything in the strike zone. During eight of the nine third- and fourth-inning at-bats that would produce hits, Concordia hitters stayed out in front of, or were even in the count.

Nielsen made that his objective.

"For the most part, throughout the day I just got myself into a count leverage," he said. "The other team fell behind in the count leverage and I was able to put good passes on my swings and I think that's what led to my success."

The 19 hits were the second-most for Concordia this season. The mark fell six shy of a Series record (25), though the Lions were only three singles shy of a tournament record 19 set in 1943.

And for a team that leans on its pitching and defense, offense always seems to find Concordia at the right time.

He quickly glanced at his coaches and shook his head side to side, indicating there was no way he was coming off the mound willingly.

Two batters later, Isaac and the Vanguard Lions were celebrating a 3-1 victory in front of 1,440 spectators at Friday's opening game of the Avista NAIA World Series at Harris Field.

"I wanted to finish that game really bad," said Isaac, a 6-foot-4 junior who fanned six and allowed just four hits in his complete-game performance.

Isaac got a helping hand in the decisive final frame from sophomore right fielder Brock Eissman, who tracked a long fly ball by Fabian Chirino to the fence to record the first out of the frame, and then gathered himself and threw out overzealous Lindsey Wilson baserunner Alex Bautista at first.

"We were hoping for a double play," Vanguard coach Rob Pegg said. "It was a little different than we drew it up, but we'll take it."

Isaac then induced a grounder to third by Victor Nazario, allowing the 10th-seeded Lions (38-20) from Costa Mesa, Calif., to prove they belong in the Series field despite having lost six of their last seven regular-season games.

"It started in the regional tournament," Isaac said, alluding to the four-game sweep that carried the Lions into the Series. "We got hot at the right time. We know how we can play, and we want to do that in this tournament."

Eissman's clutch catch and throw in the ninth atoned for a baserunning gaffe in the fourth inning, when he failed to advance from first on a deep shot to right-center by teammate Jose Rojas. The high pop fly glanced off the fence, and Rojas was ultimately called out for interference at first after passing Eissman on the basepath. One batter later, Eissman was thrown out at third on a fielder's choice.

Vanguard went ahead 1-0 in the frame regardless, as David Stone stole second with two outs and then bolted home on a full-count single by Brett Collins.

The Lions tacked on another pair of runs in the eighth when Lindsey Wilson center fielder Edgar Lebron appeared to lose sight of a high fly ball by Taylor McKnight that sailed into the glaring sun. The ball landed far beyond Lebron's estimation and fell for a double, allowing Rojas and Eissman to score from second and third, respectively.

"We got a little (boost) on the sun ball," Pegg said. "That's what you get in these kind of tournaments, guys battling the elements, and you just hope your guys scrap enough to beat the other team."

Seventh-seeded Lindsey Wilson (41-18) answered with a run on a two-out single by Brandon Munoz in the bottom of the eighth, only to see Isaac induce an inning-ending grounder after a visit to the mound by Pegg.

After the game, the coach acknowledged he had some reservations about Isaac heading into the ninth.

"He was definitely toward the upper end" of the pitch count, Pegg said. "He had 105 (pitches) going into the inning. ... We were keeping an eye on it, but we were just worried about the quality of the pitches coming out of his hand.

"When you can get a complete game in the first game, that definitely helps the (pitching) crew going into the rest of the tournament."

Vanguard returns to action today at 3 p.m. against second-seeded Faulkner, while Columbia, Ky.-based Lindsey Wilson must defeat Tabor in a loser's bracket game at 9 a.m. to avoid an early exit from the tournament.

San Diego State, in its only Series appearance, set the mark for , scoring 12 runs in the third inning of the championship game against Southwestern State. San Diego State won the game 23-9, going 3-0 in what was then a single-elimination tournament. The Aztecs scored 51 runs in three games.

St. Ambrose from Davenport, Iowa, tied the 12-runs in an inning mark in 1996, in the seventh inning against Ohio Dominican. Ironically, in St. Ambrose's four other tournament games, the team scored only 12 runs combined, eventually losing in the championship game to Lewis-Clark State 9-0.

Another record that has held up since 1959 was set by third baseman Larry Kozeny of Omaha University.

Playing in the second of three games for Omaha on the final day of the tournament, Kozeny had two home runs and two triples and knocked in a still-tournament-record 10 . Kozeny's Omaha team had overcome an eight-run deficit in the first game of the day to defeat Rollins College. Then, with the help of Kozeny's 10 RBI, Omaha defeated previously undefeated Southern University from Baton Rouge, La., 17-9, setting up the third and final game of the day, in which Southern took the crown 10-2.

Kozeny finished the tournament with 18 RBI, still a Series record.

Another rare feat from the Series record book is the : It has happened only three times in Series history. But what seems to be a rarer accomplishment happened in 2012, for only the second time in Series history.

Tennessee Wesleyan, en route to its first national title, defeated LSU-Shreveport 17-0 in a semifinal game.

In the third inning, the Bulldogs hit three consecutive home runs. After a leadoff double, Jake Stone hit a two-run HR. After a pitching change, the next batter, Taylor Oldham, hit the first pitch he saw over the right-center-field wall. Five pitches later, Jordan Guida hit the third consecutive home run, on seven pitches.

Hard to top, right?

Well, in 1986, Lewis-Clark State defeated South Carolina-Aiken 17-4. In that game, with two out in the bottom of the third, L-C's Ray Atkinson hit a two-run shot over the center-field wall. The next pitch was hopped on by Brett Holley, who powered it out to left field. On came relief pitcher Kelvin Thomas. His first pitch was hammered out of the park by Rusty Harris.

Three pitches, three home runs. L-C's seven set a still-standing tournament record.

"We played pretty much a Division II schedule outside of the NAIA, outside of our conference schedule," said Jorge Perez, the seventh-year coach of the private Catholic school located just outside Miami. Conveniently, or maybe not so much, St. Thomas is also a hop, skip and jump away from a handful of Floridian D-II powers.

Nova Southeastern, Florida Southern, University of Tampa ...

"We were playing these guys four or five times a year," Perez said. "Each team. ... Really, our schedule was murderer's row."

Since, the Bobcats have eased up on scheduling games against their NCAA neighbors. Their record has boomed as a result.

St. Thomas, 44-16 and champions of the Lawrenceville (Ga.) Bracket, will open its first Avista NAIA World Series since 2007 at noon today against Concordia of California. The Bobcats took two of three from host Georgia Gwinnett after beating Westmont (Calif.) in the first game of the Opening Round tournament.

Perez's program, which almost joined the NCAA in 2009, hasn't whittled out Division II opponents from its schedule completely.

"We started traveling around and playing some NAIA schools and things started to get better," he said. "In 2012, we won 45 games. ... It was a combination of scheduling a better schedule so we're recognized nationally and also getting the right players in."

In 2015, the Bobcats found the right dose.

They've jousted with Division II outfits such as Lynn University (Boca Raton) and Nova Southeastern (Fort Lauderdale) - earning splits with each. And of course, they've found friendly NAIA competition within the borders of Florida.

"I feel now, the last two or three years, we have gotten to a point where we can beat those Division II schools and compete with them at a high level," said Perez, who nearly made his Series breakthrough with St. Thomas in 2010, when the Bobcats were one out, and one pitch, shy of a plane trip to Lewiston, before Sun Conference foe Embry-Riddle struck with a late double to come out with a 3-2 victory.

St. Thomas didn't leave much in doubt this time, as the 20th-ranked Bobcats trounced No. 4 Georgia Gwinnett 10-2 in game one, were rolled by the Grizzlies 10-3 in game two, then rebounded to win the finale 8-2 behind seven strong innings from ace Marcos Barrios.

And Barrios (9-2), one of 32 Floridians on Perez's 38-man roster, will lead the Bobcats out when St. Thomas takes the field this afternoon.

"This is a Latin kid who came in in January because he had to make up some credits and everything," Perez said. "... He didn't come in the best of shape and in January we start so fast, that it was a transition. I don't make excuses for anybody, but that kid, his first game, it was USC (Beaufort) early in the season. It was 31 degrees. That kid had never pitched in any weather under 50 degrees."

The Sandsharks roughed up Barrios for seven earned runs in three innings and came out on top 14-0.

Since, the righty has dropped just one decision and won nine.

That isn't the case this year.

Oh, that's not to say the 10 baseball teams that have gathered in Lewiston for this year's Series aren't top-notch units. It's just that many of them didn't take the most direct route to the national tournament.

Just before the Opening Round tournaments, which are the playoffs via which teams qualify for the Series, the final national poll of the season was released. In that countdown, the schools that would eventually gain spots in the Series were ranked second, fifth, sixth, 10th, 12th, 16th, 19th, 20th, 27th ... and one was unranked.

Compare that to 2014, when nine of the teams ranked in the top 10 qualified for the Series.

So what does that mean for this tournament? Perhaps one of the higher-seeded teams - say, No. 1 Oklahoma Baptist, No. 2 Faulkner, No. 3 Tabor or No. 4 Lewis-Clark State - will charge to the championship with relative ease. Or maybe one of the clubs that upset its way through the Opening Round has captured lightning in a bottle and will take Lewiston by storm.

One thing about last year's Series: The champion wasn't one of those nine clubs ranked in the top 10. It was Cumberland of Tennessee, which landed in 23rd in the final national poll and then became the first No. 10 seed to win the national title.

The Bulldogs didn't make it back to the Series - in fact, they didn't even snag an invitation to the 45-team Opening Round stage - but the march to the crown they mustered last spring will probably serve as motivation for the underdogs in this tournament.

The longest shots are probably the Nos. 7 through 10 seeds: Lindsey Wilson of Kentucky, Concordia of California, St. Thomas of Florida and Vanguard of California. Those teams have combined to make just seven previous appearances in the Series, though Concordia made the most of its second trip in 2011, as the Eagles won the championship as the No. 9 seed.

Three of the Series teams - Oklahoma Baptist, Embry-Riddle and Concordia - will depart the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and join the NCAA after this tournament.

The Series gets started today at Harris Field with four games: Lindsey Wilson vs. Vanguard at 9 a.m., Concordia vs. St. Thomas at noon, Embry-Riddle vs. Tabor at 3 p.m. and, following the opening ceremony at approximately 6 p.m., host LCSC vs. Davenport at 7.

The top two seeds, Oklahoma Baptist and Faulkner, gets byes into Saturday's second round.

If a team sweeps through the Series without a loss, the tournament will end Thursday. Otherwise, it will wrap up Friday.

There is some chance of rain over the next week, but it appears that high temperatures in the 80s should be expected.

ESPN3 will show games next week on Wednesday, Thursday and, if played, Friday.

"We like the package; we worked hard to keep it together," LCSC athletic director Gary Picone said. "The NAIA would like to progress in the ESPN package, and there may be a time the ESPN package takes over, and that's fine if it happens.

"As the college, having an identity on a Northwest television station (SWX), that's nice to have and it really gives us some exposure," Picone added.