LEWISTON, Idaho -  The Bushnell baseball team was strong armed by the strong arms of No. 4-ranked LC State on Friday night, falling into the losers bracket at the CCC Championship tournament after a 6-4 defeat.
 
The fourth-seed Beacons (26-26) out-hit the top-seed Warriors (39-7) in the game, but were plagued by 11 runners left on base, and two LC State pitchers combined for 16 strikeouts to move the regular-season champs into the semifinals.
 
The Beacons struck first blood, taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning as Albert Jennings and Dylan Carson posted back-to-back doubles.
 
LCSC responded with two in the bottom of first and went on to take a 6-3 lead as they scored in four of the first five innings. Kai Keamo (4-6) took the loss for Bushnell, going 3.2 innings and allowing three earned runs.
 
Bushnell collected 14 hits in the game, including a monster 4-for-4 performance for senior Caleb Richter who homered for the second game in a row and finished his day batting 6-for-7 with four runs and five RBI out of the nine-hole. Max Richards and Nigel Fahland added two hits apiece.
 
Jacob Courtney ate up some much needed innings out of the bullpen, going 4.1 innings, allowing three hits and striking out four batters. With Austin Wolfe's complete game against OIT on Friday morning, the Beacons needed to use just three pitchers over their first two games. Courtney's lone blemish was a solo homer for Jackson Reed in the bottom of the fifth inning. It was the first home run he has allowed in 2026.  
 
The Warriors also used just two arms with Evan Canfield (8-1) striking out ten batters over five innings and Jordan Lennartson claiming his sixth save of the season behind six strikeouts in four innings.
 
"We didn't play our best version of baseball in game two today," said Head Coach Jamie Womack, "but the overall confidence coming from our guys still is exciting and we look forward to getting after it tomorrow night against whoever we get to face."
 
UP NEXT: The Beacons will have to play just once on Saturday, in the final game of the day at 6:00 pm. They will take on the winner of the 11:00 am elimination game, featuring No. 5-seed Oregon Tech and No. 3-seed College of Idaho.