LONGVIEW, Washington – For two hours Monday afternoon, Linn-Benton’s baseball team went toe-to-toe with Lower Columbia College, vying for the right to take on Lane in the championship game of the NWAC baseball playoffs.
But in the eighth inning, Lower Columbia broke through with a run to take a 2-1 lead, then put an exclamation mark on their win with a three-run home run in the top of the ninth inning, ending the Roadrunners’ quest to repeat as NWAC champions. With the 5-1 win, Lower Columbia will take on Lane Community College for the NWAC championship. (UPDATE: Lower Columbia went on to win the champtionship, with a 12-2 win over Lane.)
While Lower Columbia was able to quiet the bats that had propelled LBCC throughout the tournament, they couldn’t solve the pitching of LB starter Evan Lehnert, who held Lower Columbia to one run on five hits, striking out six batters. Jake Johnson followed with three innings, only allowing a run on two hits. Dayne Castillo finished out the contest for LB, giving up the home run to James Cote that helped seal the win for Lower Columbia.
On offense, the Roadrunners could only collect three hits and a walk against Lower Columbia pitchers, who struck out seven batters and allowed no earned runs.
Linn-Benton finished the season with a 38-10 record.
Here’s the boxscore for the game: https://nwacsports.com/sports/bsb/2025-26/boxscores/20260525_kn8x.xml
For more information and results on the tournament, see https://nwacsports.com/Championship_Central_Baseball.
