Lewis-Clark State baseball learns Opening Round opponents

May 7—The Lewis-Clark State baseball team's path back to the Avista NAIA World Series runs through Lewiston.

That was guaranteed.

Now, the Warriors know who they will have to beat to get there after the NAIA announced the complete National Baseball Championship bracket on Wednesday, which includes 10 host sites for the double-elimination Opening Rounds.

Top-seeded and No. 4 nationally ranked LC State will host second-seeded No. 13 Texas A&M-Victoria, third-seeded No. 21 Hope International (Calif.) and fourth-seeded Keiser (Fla.) in the NAIA Opening Round, presented by Avista, beginning Monday at Harris Field.

In a poetic matchup, LC State will open its Opening Round against Keiser at 6 p.m. Monday (Urban Edge Network).

The last time LC State opened a postseason run against the Keiser Seahawks, they won the national championship. Coach Jeremiah Robbins and the Warriors faced the Seahawks on May 26, 2017, in the World Series when they last won it all.

The Opening Round continues through Wednesday with an "if-necessary" game Thursday.

The Warriors, winners of an NAIA-best 19 national championships all-time, lost their automatic bid to the World Series starting with the 2022 season. That wasn't a problem for the first two years, in which the Warriors, who retained automatic hosting privileges for one of 10 Opening Round sites, played their way into the Series and lost back-to-back national championship games.

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However, the Warriors' campaigns ended in the Opening Round each of the last two years, which led the school to dismiss former coach Jake Taylor and rehire Robbins, who won the Warriors' most recent three national championships from 2015-17 and left after the 2018 season to found Umpqua Community College's baseball program.

In Robbins' first year back with the program, the Warriors are 41-7 overall, claimed a share of the Cascade Conference regular-season championship and won the conference tournament in Lewiston over the weekend.

The CCC named Robbins Cascade Conference Coach of the Year and eight Warriors earned conference postseason awards.

LC State is 4-2 all-time against Hope International and 1-1 in the postseason.

Hope International has made Lewiston its second home the past two Mays — surviving the last two LCSC-hosted Opening Round brackets to qualify for the World Series.

The HIU Royals went on to win the national championship in 2024 after falling to LC State 15-14 in the Opening Round.

The Royals also represented the Lewiston bracket in the Series last season, beating the Warriors 12-1 en route to their return before falling twice to eventual champion LSU Shreveport in the World Series.

This season, Hope International is 37-13 overall and won the Great Southwest Athletic Conference Tournament title.

Keiser is 35-17 and got bounced from its conference tournament by reigning national runner-up Southeastern (Fla.) and another World Series team from last year, Webber International.