Californians Find Own Private Idaho

The three out-of-towners couldn’t believe the temperature when they first pulled into Lewiston, Idaho.

“It was 103 degrees and I was dreading it,” Jake Kor said.

Ditto for Matt Hellman and Wes Hutchison. If the culture wasn’t a shock, the blistering heat was.

Perhaps it had something to do with those snow-capped mountains on Idaho travel brochures.

“It was like my world got flipped upside-down,” Hellman said.

Funny how a few months on a championship-caliber baseball team can make all the problems disappear.

They did for Kor, Hellman and Hutchison, Southern California junior college transfers playing at Lewis-Clark State College, the nation’s top-rated NAIA team.

The defending-champion Warriors (57-12), who are hosting the NAIA World Series, beat Dallas Baptist, 4-3, on Wednesday night. The double-elimination tournament ends Friday or Saturday.

Lewis-Clark has won 10 NAIA titles and gets plenty of backing from the locals, who are packing 5,000-seat Harris Field for the 10-team tournament that includes The Master’s College.

“It’s phenomenal,” Hellman said. “The people are really behind us.”

Hellman, a right fielder and designated hitter, is batting .342 with three home runs and 37 runs batted in. Hutchison, a right-handed closer, is 2-2 with five saves and a 4.37 earned-run average, and right-hander Kor is 3-0 with a 3.13 ERA.

The Warriors this season defeated Washington State, Pepperdine, Hawaii and Gonzaga, all NCAA Division I teams, with Hutchison saving a 5-4 victory over Washington State on May 10 by striking out three in two hitless innings.

He struck out four and gave up three hits and one run in 5 2/3 innings to pick up a save in Lewis-Clark’s 10-4 victory over Brewton-Parker in the first game of the World Series on Friday.

Kor arrived at Lewiston by way of Rio Mesa High and Moorpark College. Hellman and Hutchison were teammates at Burroughs and Glendale College. All were recruited by Denny Barrett, a first-year Warrior assistant and former coach at Glendale.

“They’ve all contributed to our success,” Barrett said.

First, they had to get acclimated.

Lewiston and twin city Clarkson sit in north-central Idaho, on the border with Washington and Oregon. Lewiston has a population of about 28,000 and it’s the state’s only inland seaport, with ships coming in from the Pacific on the Snake and Columbia rivers.

It’s a sleepy little place where people wave hello as they drive by on First Street or Old Gun Club Road, making sure to stay within the 35-mph limit, the maximum allowed all over town.

“You can go jet skiing or fishing, but there’s nothing much to do,” Hutchison said.

But as time passed and they became wrapped up in schoolwork and baseball, the more Kor, Hellman and Hutchison liked their new surroundings.

Even after giving up the surf and sand of Oxnard, as Kor did.

“The people here are very friendly,” Hellman said. “Sometimes a family will have us over for a team barbecue. . . . It’s a nice little area.”

There might be a serious shindig if the Warriors win the World Series, with bucketfuls of--what else?--potato salad, which could not be dampened even if the rain that soaked Lewiston during the week persisted.

Around those parts, nobody panics over the ever-changing climate.

“They have a saying here that goes, ‘If you don’t like the weather, stay another five minutes,’ ” Hutchison said.

Kor, Hellman and Hutchison are glad they did.