LEWISTON, Idaho—Weather and extra innings forced Southeastern to play its first game of the Avista NAIA World Series at 9:30 local time.
Technically, Sunday back on campus.
The late night didn't seem to affect SEU starting pitcher
Darien Smith who struck out 13 in seven innings of work in a 5-2 win over host Lewis-Clark State.
"The time difference made it a little different than we're used to but the atmosphere was great and I loved it," said Smith. "The key was staying ahead and attacking the zone, I had really good feel for the slider today and it seemed to give them trouble so I went with it all day."
Smith did not factor in the decision after allowing one earned run on five hits and two walks with 120 pitches.
"Darien did a really good job keeping them at bay and giving an opportunity for Chayce to have a big swing late," said coach
Adrian Dinkel.
Adonys Herrera gave the top-seeded Fire (56-4) their first lead with a two-out RBI single up the middle to bring home
Nick Winkelmeyer in the bottom of the fifth inning. Isaiah Thomas tied the game with a solo home run in the top of the eighth.
In the Southeastern eighth,
Isaac Nunez and Herrera led off the inning with singles and were moved to second and third on a sacrifice bunt by
David Castillo to set the stage for
Chayce Bryant who launched a three-run homer to straight away center field for his 20
th of the season and a three-run lead.
"He got a slider in and got his hands there and got it out," said Dinkel. "He just wanted to get a job done and found a barrel and it left the yard."
Reece Wissinger struck out five of the six he faced for his fifth win of the year.
The ninth-seeded Warriors (34-17) struck first, taking advantage of a dropped fly ball and a pair of wild pitches to score in the top of the second.
Josh Pigozzo's RBI single to right in the bottom of the inning scored
Stephen Cullen from second to tie the game.
Herrera led the offense with a 3-for-4 night at the plate. The top three in the SEU order were responsible for five of the seven hits by the Fire.
Southeastern will face fourth-seeded William Carey on Monday at 6:35 p.m. Pacific Time/9:35 p.m. Eastern Time.
