LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – The Indiana Tech baseball team defeated No. 8-ranked and defending AVISTA-NAIA World Series National Champion Lewis-Clark State, 7-5, on Saturday afternoon in their first game of the Georgia Gwinnett Grizzly Spring Baseball Invitational at the Grizzly Baseball Complex.
 
Tech jumped all over the Warriors in the top of the first as they used three hits and two walks to put a four-spot up on the scoreboard, all with two outs in the inning. Following a leadoff walk to Charlie Sipe, who would steal second in the next at-bat, Keith Tatum would rip a double to left to score Sipe, while Tighe Koehring would knock in courtesy runner David Barksdale in the next at-bat to make it 2-0 Tech. Two batters latter Peyton Newsom would smash a double to right center to score Koehring and Matt Bandor and put the visitors up 4-0.
 
A Glen McClain RBI single in the second would put the Orange and Black up 5-0, but the host Warriors would plate a pair of runs in the second and third to cut the deficit to one. Koehring would extend the lead up to two in the fourth with a RBI single while Diante Biagini would hit a sacrifice fly to score Ryan Tom and make it a 7-4 game.
 
Jacob Gomez would come into the game in the eighth to close the game, but the Warriors would make things interesting as they cut the lead to 7-5 and had runners on first and third with two outs, but Gomez would get final out with a 6-4 fielders' choice.
 
Johnny Crawford would improve to 3-0 on the season after going seven innings on the hill, striking out four while allowing four runs, two earned, on five hits. Sipe would finish with two walks and two stolen bases while scoring twice, Koehring and Newsom led the team with two RBI's and McClain and Bandor each notched a pair of hits.
 
Tech (14-4) returns to action on Sunday as they take on Lewis-Clark State in a rematch at 3 p.m. while they conclude the Grizzly Spring Invite against the host and No. 2-ranked Georgia Gwinnett at 7 p.m. from the Grizzly Baseball Complex.