ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Apr. 26) – The Central Washington University baseball dropped its midweek non-conference game against Lewis-Clark State College, 8-18.  Central is now 22-20 on the season, while Lewis-Clark State moves to 41-7.
 
Led by three home runs and six doubles, and five Wildcat errors defensively, the Warriors put up crooked numbers in three innings.
 
"They're a good team," CWU Head Coach Desi Storey said.  "We left a few too many pitches over the plate and they took advantage of it.  Hats off to them.  Defensively we need to get better.  We didn't execute real well in the field and it hurt us early."
 
The Wildcats scored the first two runs of the ballgame in the first inning.  Darren Honeysett singled home Ryan Atkinso.  Tanner Romo then doubled to left, scoring Jake Levin and Reid Martinez.
 
With a 3-1 lead in the second, Martinez singled which scored Atkinson 
 
An explosive third inning saw five runs cross for the Warriors, before four more came in during the fifth.  Lewis-Clark pushed another run across in the sixth, before the Warriors bats exploded for six more runs.  They added another run in the ninth, scoring 18 total.
 
Randy Fuller scored Honeysett on a ground out in the fifth.  Conor Plaisance hit a solo home run in the seventh, before singling the ninth and scoring Christopher Dalto.  A sacrifice fly by Kyle Stahl, scoring James Smith III, rounded out the Wildcats scoring.
 
Kyle Blankenship (2-3) was charged with the loss.  In two innings of relief Blankenship allowed three hits, four runs, three earned, one walk, and one strikeout. 
 
Plaisance finished with two hits and two runs batted in.  Atkinson, Smith III, Honeysett, Martinez, Stahl, Dan Whitney, Romo, Dalto, and Myles Wesener each had a hit.
 
"We had a lot of guys contribute on offense," Storey noted.  "It was nice to see some guys get some swings that don't normally get to.  We have a big series ahead of us, so we need to learn from today and get it done this weekend."
 
The Wildcats are back at home this weekend against Northwest Nazarene in a crucial Great Northwest Athletic Conference series.