LEWISTON, IDAHO – Ninth seed St. Thomas (44-17) dropped its opening game at the Avista-NAIA World Series 12-2 to eighth seed Concordia (48-16) on Friday afternoon in Lewiston, Idaho.  St. Thomas remains alive in the 10-team, double elimination tournament and will play the loser of Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) – Davenport (Mich.) on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET.
 
Concordia scored its 12 runs on 19 hits, while the Bobcats only managed to score two runs on nine hits.  Neither team committed an error.
 
Concordia starting pitcher Isaiah Terrazas (7-2) earned the win after allowing two runs on seven hits over six innings.  STU starter Marcos Barrios absorbed the loss, allowing eight runs on nine hits over 3.1 innings.
 
St. Thomas took an early lead in the top of the first as shortstop Cesar Ramirez hit a one-out single, then was driven in with a two-out double by Paul Chacin.  The Eagles tied the game up with a run in the bottom of the first, then scored five runs in the fifth to open up a 6-1 lead.
 
The Bobcats cut the lead to four runs in the top of the fourth as first baseman Eric Santamaria led off the frame with a triple to deep left-center.  Catcher Steven Fischer then hit a sacrifice fly to deep right to drive home Santamaria.
 
The Eagles responded with three runs in the bottom of the fourth, then added a run in the sixth and two more runs in the seventh.
 
Four Bobcats recorded multi-hit games with Ramirez, Chacin, Santamaria and Oscar Rodriguez each with two hits.
 
STU used a total of five pitchers with Tyeler Checkley, Andres Hernandez, Alejandro Kan, and Alex Sarmiento all seeing action in relief of Barrios.
 
St. Thomas will await Friday night's game between Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) and Davenport (Mich.) and will face the loser of that game at 3 p.m. ET on Saturday.  Live stats/broadcast for the game will be available at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/naia/