LEWISTON, Idaho - In a rematch of the 2015 National Championship Game, no. 3 seed St. Thomas (56-8) was defeated by no. 6 seed Lewis-Clark State late Friday night at Harris Field on the opening day of the Avista-NAIA World Series.

St. Thomas will now play University of Northwestern Ohio in a must-win game in the 10-team, double-elimination tournament on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. PT.

Nick Izquierdo opened the scoring with a RBI-single in the top of the second to score Oscar Rodriguez who reached base on a walk, then stole second.

After the Warriors tied the score 1-1 in the bottom of the third, Sergio Lopez launched a solo home run to left-center to give the Bobcats the lead back. It marked the 14th homer of the season for Lopez.

LCSC then re-took the lead 3-2 with a bases-loaded walk followed by a balk in the bottom of the fourth.  The Warriors then added runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to take a 6-2 lead.

STU battled back with a big eighth inning as Nelson Mompierre led off with a double to start the rally.  Chris Garabedian then went deep with a two-run home run over the right field wall.  Lopez followed with his second homer of the game, his 15th of the season, to cut the deficit to one run.

Reliever Alex Sarmiento with some solid defense behind him by second baseman Jackie Urbaez then retired the Warriors 1-2-3 in the bottom of the eighth to hold the score at 6-5.

In the top of the ninth, Erick Delgado drew a leadoff walk.  LCSC then turned a double-play and were able to finish off the Bobcats in the ninth to secure the win.

Starting pitcher Orlando Rodriguez retired the first seven batters he faced, before allowing a run in the bottom of the third.  Rodriguez finished with 10 strikeouts, his third double-digit strikeout total of the season.

The game was halted with a 38-minute lightning delay in top of the third with the Bobcats leading 1-0.

Live coverage (pay-per-view) of Saturday's game will be provided by the NAIA Network at naianetwork.com

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