The Lower Columbia College baseball team couldn't ride the walk off excitement into the second game as they split a pair with Pierce College on Saturday April 28th at Story Field.

GJ Hurst hit a walk-off RBI double in the bottom of the 9th inning to give LCC a 6-5 win over Pierce in the first game.  The Raiders bounced back to beat the Devils 7-2 in the nightcap.

The Devils rallied from deficits three times in the first game.

Starter Mitch Lines was touched up for four runs in the second innings, but settled down to hold them at bay through five.  Derek Downey was outstanding in relief as he went four innings and gave up three hits and run.

The Raiders plated a run in the 7th to take a 5-4 lead.  Hurst then drove in the equalizer with an RBI single in the 7th.

Tied at 5th in the ninth, JT Strickler opened with a single and was sacrificed to second by Sam Trend-Beacom.  That's when Hurst smacked a curve ball to left center triggering the celebration.  Hurst was 2 for 4 with three RBI's.

DeShawn Johnson, Chase Hodkinson and Hunter Cook each had a hit and an RBI.

The second game was a 7 inning affair that featured a marquee pitching matchup between Yancy Bird of LCC and Alan Vasquez of Pierce.

The Raiders got to Bird first.  Rylan Cratsenberg's three run homer in the third was the big hit.  Pierce added two more in the 4th to chase Bird.

Pierce added two more runs in the 5th of reliever Ryan Kaser and the deficit was too much to overcome.

Travis Paynter came on and shut down the Raiders over the final two innings.

LCC could muser just six hits against Vasquez.  Noah Andrews and Trend-Beacom had two hits each.  Strickler and Johnson had the other hits for LCC.

The Devils are 12-3 in the West, tied with Tacoma for the top spot. 

LCC will take on Pierce for two games on Sunday April 29th at Mt. Tahoma High School in Tacoma.  Start time is 1 pm.