Waddell, AZ – The Arizona Christian University baseball team's (6-1) unbeaten start to the season came to an end as they fell in a close battle to undefeated No. 4 Lewis-Clark State (6-0) 6-4 at Canyon View High School on Wednesday evening in Waddell, AZ.

Series Notes:

With the loss the Firestorm are now 1-5 against the Warriors.

The Game:

Evan Massie got the start and pitched 6 innings, allowing two runs, one earned and four hits while striking out seven and walking two. Andrew Hirsch (0-1) took the loss while allowing two runs on no hits while walking one and hitting one. Robby Campillo led the Firestorm's offense going 2-for-4 with two RBIs.

The Firestorm got on the board first as Damien McElroy crushed a solo home run over the right field foul pole to put the Firestorm up 1-0 in the bottom of the second. The Warriors quickly answered in the third on an RBI double to tie the game at 1-1. The Firestorm would then retake in the bottom half of the inning on a sacrifice fly by Daniel Durazo to make it 2-1. Once again the Warriors would tie the game though this time on an error as the made it 2-2 going into the fifth.

Robby Campillo would put the Firestorm back up with an RBI infield single to make it 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning. Things were looking good for the Firestorm until the seventh inning when the bullpen ran into trouble. With two on and one out it looked like the Firestorm got a strikeout but the Warriors batter was able to reach on error to load the bases. The Firestorm than walked the bases loaded and hit a batter with the bases loaded as the Warriors took a 6-3 lead in the seventh.

The Firestorm looked to get back in the game as they pulled a run back on three straight singles to start the bottom half of the seventh and make it 6-4. The Firestorm then loaded the bases with no outs but were unable to cash in as they went on to drop their first game of the season to the No. 4 Warriors.

Inside the Box Score:

Campillo: 2-for-4, 2 RBIs

Durazo: 1-for-2, RBI

McElroy: 1-for-4, HR, RBI

Thoughts from Coach:

After the game Head Coach Joe McDonald stated, "I really loved how we kept ourselves in the game tonight against a top 10 very talented team in the country even though we made some mistakes we kept grinding and put ourselves in a position to have a chance to win the game. We feel like we beat ourselves tonight which is not a bad thing when we know what we need to work on and we will do it collectively as a group and look forward to the challenge of facing them again tomorrow night."

Up Next:

The Firestorm continue their series at home against No. 4 Lewis-Clark State on Thursday, February 3 at Canyon View High School in Waddell, AZ at 6:00 PM Arizona Time.