GAME 7: Warriors pull a 180

May 24—It was almost 1 a.m. when the Lewis-Clark State Warriors walked into their locker room, having lost by eight runs to the eighth-seeded Tennessee Wesleyan Bulldogs in an Avista NAIA World Series opening game that started on Friday but ended early Saturday

They didn't talk about it.

Instead, LC State coach Jeremiah Robbins, a veteran of six World Series in the last decade, gave his team a choice.

"'Move on right now or ... cry about this game,'" Robbins said he told his team. "They all said, 'We're moving on right now.' I said, 'Right on, let's go.' I sent them home. That was all that there is to say. When you get into this side of the bracket, there's no talking; it's about your actions, your mentality ...

"And obviously they listened."

It started with senior starting pitcher Mason Goodson firing a quick 1-2-3 first inning, continued with left fielder Brandon Nguyen blasting a leadoff home run to spark a nine-run first inning and ended with a 12-1 LC State victory in seven-inning mercy rule over the second-seeded Georgia Gwinnett Grizzlies on Saturday.

A Harris Field crowd of 3,133 headed for the exits around 9 p.m. — much earlier than the post-midnight departure the night before.

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"Just a heart-to-heart. (Robbins) didn't say much," Goodson said of the team's late-night rally. "We got our backs to a wall, he's like, 'You guys better play like you mean it.' So it's nothing new. We always feel the pressure. We got our boys rolling, so we're not scared."

LC State will play top-seeded Taylor (Ind.) at 11 a.m. Monday.

Georgia Gwinnett's season is done.

Nine-run first

Nguyen has been the Warriors' leadoff man for most of the season. Leadoff home runs like the one he slapped on Saturday are precisely why.

We knew we were going, and that's exactly what happened," second baseman Izzy Madariaga said. "One through nine, we just raked it."

From there, the Warriors were off to the races, working their way through the order and then some.

Jackson Jaha followed up Nguyen's solo shot with a double straight to the center-field wall. Soon after, Jackson Reed cranked a two-run double to make it 3-0 and then scored on a GGU error.

Already leading 4-0, GGU pitcher Gavin LeBlanc's day was done after just a third of an inning.

The Warriors kept the temperature up, leading 5-0 after a full turn through the order just in time for Nguyen to deliver another huge hit as he blasted a two-run triple to the center-field wall.

Jaha hit Nguyen home right after and Madariaga smacked his own center field-bound extra-base hit to raise the Warrior lead to 9-0.

Those straightaway center blasts have been something the Warriors have shied away from, Robbins said.

That changed Saturday with the Warriors' firm approach.

"When you're putting a barrel on the ball straight away, your hitters are locked in, and we stayed with the approach, and we're able to get to their pen."

Redemption

LC State second baseman Izzy Madariaga found himself on the end of a nightmare scenario Friday night — an error on a routine grounder that led to a run scored and preceded a two-run home run that sent the game into blowout territory.

Baseball, like life, has an almost karmic rhythm, an arc toward justice, if you will.

So, on the very first pitch of Saturday's game, Madariaga gloved a grounder and threw it over to first base for a lightning-quick first out.

That was just the beginning.

In the top of the fifth, Jackson Legg hit a chopper Madariaga's way with one out and one on first.

The senior second baseman snagged the ball, tagged Georgia Gwinnett's Grant Pohlman and slung the ball to Sam Weber at first for the double play.

"I saw Izzy come up and attack it, and I only thought we were going to get one, and it was just a true surprise that he got two," Goodson said. "And it was a hell of a play, honestly, the best play I might have seen."

Madariaga wasn't finished with his redemption tour either, answering GGU's lone solo home run with a solo shot of his own that sparked a three-run bottom of the sixth.

"We've been punched before, and we know how to punch back," Madariaga said. "So a loss isn't going to affect us, and (Robbins) always tells us to be where our feet are, and that's exactly what we did today."

Near perfection

Goodson began the year in the bullpen after getting hit around in fall ball.

Fall was a long time ago, though, and since then, Goodson has been brilliant, with a fifth-best 1.82 ERA entering the Series.

He proved exactly what he was capable of Saturday, using 89 pitches to log a complete seven-inning game with one run allowed on three hits.

He held an otherwise stout Grizzlies lineup that was among the best in the NAIA to minimal damage.

"They're a good swinging team, like I've seen the statistics and all that," Goodson said. "But that's something you don't got to think about. As a ball player, you just go out there and you play your game, you do whatever you do, and see what happens after that."

Goodson struck out six, walked three and took advantage of several double plays to send the Grizzlies to the bus when they created a bit of traffic.

"You see what happens for a pitcher when there's a nine up there," Robbins said. "They can nestle in, they can miss on a few pitches, they don't have to pitch so fine, and that's what happened."

The blood rounds

After beating the two seed, the third-seeded Warriors will need to beat the top-seeded Taylor Trojans.

Robbins said it's arguably easier to motivate a one-loss team than it is to motivate an undefeated team in the Series.

"The choices that you get to make, they're minuscule; either you win or you go home, so it makes it pretty easy, actually," Robbins said. "They know what this means."

Georgia Gwinnett 000 001 0— 1 3 1

Lewis-Clark State 900 003 x—12 14 0

LeBlanc, Smith (1), Cothran (4), Sells (6) and Pohlman; Goodson and Westerlund.

W — Goodson (8-1); L — LeBlanc (5-3).

Georgia Gwinnett hits — Tillery (HR), Smith, O'Neill.

Lewis-Clark State hits — Jaha 3 (2B), Nguyen 2 (HR, 3B), Madariaga 2 (HR, 2B), Reed 2 (2B), Prescott (2B), Weintraub, Westerlund.

STARS OF THE GAME

Lewis-Clark State starter MASON GOODSON fired seven one-run innings in a mercy-rule

complete game to stave off Georgia Gwinnett's highly ranked offense. Goodson struck out six and induced a number of key double plays.

The Warriors' senior second baseman IZZY MADARIAGA turned an eye-popping double play in the top of the fifth, tagging out a runner and gunning the ball to first base. Then clubbed a leadoff home run in the top of the sixth to spark a three-run frame.

LC State's 1-2 punch of BRANDON NGUEYN and JACKSON JAHA combined for a cycle in the first inning alone, with Nguyen smacking a leadoff home run and a two-run triple and Jaha doubling and singling to constitute a tone-setting sensation in the Warriors' nine-run first frame.

QUOTE OF NOTE

"When you get into this side of the bracket, there's no talking; it's about your actions, your mentality. ... And obviously they listened." — Lewis-Clark State coach Jeremiah Robbins on what it takes to advance in Series elimination games — what he calls the "blood rounds."