May 13—One more win.
That’s all the Lewis-Clark State Warriors need to return to the Avista NAIA World Series.
The reality set in Tuesday at Harris Field following a seven-inning complete game from senior starting pitcher Mason Goodson and a remarkably efficient offensive night in a 10-0 mercy-ruled, seven-inning shutout of Hope International in the NAIA Baseball Opening Round, presented by Avista.
Advertisement
For players like senior center fielder Noah Weintraub, one of the longest-tenured active Warriors, the weight of the moment is perfectly clear.
“We’re not satisfied at all,” Weintraub said. “We know where we want to be. … We want to keep stepping forward and get to where we know we can be and need to be.”
As the last undefeated team standing in their pod, No. 4 LC State (43-7) will play the winner of Keiser and Hope International’s elimination game at 6 p.m. today.
The Seahawks and Royals (38-14) meet at 2:30 p.m. to decide who will face LC.
Nameless opponent
The Warriors’ philosophy is firm. Every opponent is “nameless.”
Advertisement
Their focus is internal — on their own preparation, mindset and performance.
But the Warriors are humans first and baseball players second.
And there was no mistaking what the team sitting in what is typically the LCSC dugout along the third base line was Tuesday night.
Hope International has made five trips to Lewiston over the past two years — including a pair of LCSC-hosted Opening Rounds that ended with the Royals advancing to the World Series at LC’s expense.
Last year, the Royals punched the Warriors in the nose with a 12-1 mercy-ruled seven-inning victory on May 13, 2025, to draw first blood in a season-ending wound. The Warriors were eliminated by Wayland Baptist (Texas) the following day.
Advertisement
On Tuesday night in front of a 565-person crowd, the Warriors did all the hitting (and pitching).
“We talked about it before the game. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing,” Weintraub said. “But, it definitely feels good to get revenge, like we did there and from last year (and) in the years past.”
While he has been sidelined by an injury, senior captain Bulla Ephan has still played a critical leadership role, LC State coach Jeremiah Robbins said. Ephan addressed the team prior to the game and delivered a clear message.
“I’m sure some of those returners know who they are playing,” Robbins said. “But, at the end of the day, the strong message from our leader was, ‘We’re playing baseball. We’ve got to find a way to get to tomorrow,’ and they did that, and they had the eyes of guys that were going after something.”
Advertisement
A two-hitter
It’s a baseball rule, Goodson said. Don’t mention the no-hitter in the dugout.
“Gratefully, nobody said anything about it,” Goodson said. “It’s a cool thing, but I try to look past it, because it doesn’t matter as long as we get the win.”
Goodson took a no-hitter into the fifth inning with Hope International’s David Allen removing the coveted zero from that column of the scoreboard.
The right-hander from Stanwood, Wash., used 98 pitches to go the distance, permitting no runs off two hits while striking out five and walking three.
With a three-pitch mix, Goodson got ahead in the count on most every batter he faced, and enjoyed some SportsCenter-worthy plays from the fielders behind him.
Advertisement
In the bottom of the third, Goodson induced a liner directly to second baseman Izzy Madariaga, who fired the ball to first baseman Sam Weber, who applied the tag on the Royal runner for the double play to end the inning.
After Goodson conceded his first hit in the fifth, CCC Gold Glover Bryce Johnson dove, going all out for the out.
“I think it’s great, ” Goodson said. “My boys diving, doing anything they can, putting their bodies on the line, and they’re doing tremendous at the plate and in the field.”
Another big day for Reed
After a pair of closely contested conference tournament games, the Warriors’ most recent two games against fellow top 25 teams have been blowouts in favor of LC State. The Warriors blasted to a 12-2 Cascade Conference Tournament final victory over No. 24 British Columbia on May 3 and kept the train chugging with the 10-run shutout of No. 21 HIU on Tuesday.
Advertisement
At the center of the Warriors’ offensive success as of late is one Jackson Reed, the senior designated hitter whose former Division I team, Seattle U, beat Washington State 12-11 about 34 miles up the road Tuesday.
Now thriving with LCSC, Reed followed up his three-hit night against Keiser from Monday with another three hits, three RBI and two runs against Hope International — finishing a home run shy of the cycle.
Reed worked a four-pitch walk in the top of the second to come around and score the Warriors’ first run, scorched an RBI triple to right field in the fourth to extend the lead to 3-0 and found open grass for a two-run double in the fifth inning.
His single in the seventh moved Johnson to third, where he scored from on Weintraub’s RBI groundout, which put the Warriors in 10-run rule-inducing territory — effectively saving the bullpen for today.
Advertisement
An opportunity awaits
What the Warriors have worked the whole year to achieve is possible today.
However, Robbins said that if he allowed the weight of getting back to the World Series to “creep in, I wouldn’t last very long here.”
“It’s about these 28 kids and the other 15 that didn’t get to dress down and going through this experience and being together as a group and writing their own legacy,” Robbins said. “This is a legacy program, and guys got to come in and do the right thing all the time, on and off the field. So I’m just happy for them. They get to be in a spot to do something.
Advertisement
“The game’s going to be the game. That’s not going to change for us. We know that, so we’ve got to go out and play hard and represent LC State the right way tomorrow.”
Lewis-Clark State 020 340 1—10 7 1
Hope International 000 000 0—0 2 1
Goodson and Westerlund; Thrift, Young (4), Bagby (5), Tilton (5) and Nolasco.
Lewis-Clark State hits — Reed 3 (3B, 2B), Johnson 2 (2B), Weber, Westerlund.
Hope International — Essang, Allen.
Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2260, staylor@lmtribune.com, or on X or Instagram @Sam_C_Taylor.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
