College Baseball: Lower Columbia suffers early exit at NWAC Tournament

Great Expectations – Red Devils search for perspective following 4-2 loss to Spokane

Sam Davidson of Lower Columbia College puts a good swing on a pitch against Spokane in the NWAC Tournament, Saturday, May 24, at Story Field. The Red Devils were eliminated with a 4-2 loss to the Sasquatch. / Photo by Skyler Smith of Framed Photography

Sam Barbee for Blast Zone Media / blastzonenews@gmail.com

NWAC Baseball

Story Field — There are many programs where a division championship and a win at the NWAC Tournament constitutes a good season.

Lower Columbia is not one of those programs.

No school in the Northwest Athletic Conference has more appearances, more trips to the last game, more titles than the Red Devils.

But there is a wrinkle in that outlook this season. It was successful. It just doesn’t look the same. But it still hurts after a 4-2 defeat to Spokane on Saturday, ending LC’s season.

“When you have your goals and expectations as high as we do and the standards we set in this program, yeah, it can be a trap you fall into,” LCC coach Kurt Lupinski said.

The Red Devils won a school-record 44 regular season games and finished 2025 45-6. Over the course of a season that started Feb. 20 — back when it was still winter and MLB Spring Training hadn’t officially started yet — LCC was consistent. Consistently excellent.

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