The rain started to fall in the first inning, and by the fourth inning of yesterday’s game between the UW baseball team and Lewis-Clark State, it got to be too much for the umpires.

A delay was called, and as the precipitation continued to hit the Husky Ballpark field turf and the tops of the umbrellas of those in attendance, whether or not the game would be resumed was uncertain.

But after 47 minutes of waiting, the 1-1 tie game resumed and Kyle Conley’s first inning home run — 17th of the season, 40th of his career — stood on the books.

It was a good thing for Conley because the dinger put him in third place on the UW’s all-time career home run list, just two behind leader Ed Erickson.

“He’s a good hitter, man,” said UW head coach Ken Knutson. “He’s going to go down as one of the best hitters in the history of the school.”

But maybe it wasn’t such a good thing for the Huskies, who continued their up-and-down season with a loss to the three-time defending NAIA champion Warriors, 5-2.

The Dawgs were up on the Warriors 1-0 after Conley’s homer, until the top of the third when Ben Ornelas singled off UW starter Seth Haehl to drive in Paul Martin and tie the game at one.

After play resumed in the fourth inning, Haehl continued to have some struggles when Warrior second baseman Kyle Melton drove in Kawika Emsley-Pai to give L-C State the 2-1 lead.

“He never got into it, never found tempo,” Knutson said of Haehl. “He threw a lot of balls. When he’s on, he’s throwing strike one.”

So Knutson brought in Forrest Snow to pitch for Haehl. Snow pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings and struck out five in relief.

But the Huskies had trouble at the plate. After Conley’s first inning blast, the Dawgs didn’t score again until the seventh inning when a Jake Rife single allowed catcher Brett Wilcox to score from third base.

The bases stayed loaded with no outs, but the Warriors’ Nick Masters — who was brought in to pitch for Dustin Willis — struck out the side to get the Warriors out of a tough situation.

Ultimately, the game was decided in the top of the ninth inning when Brian Ward smacked a three-run round-tripper over the left-field wall to give L-C State the 5-2 lead.

Masters continued his mastery over the Huskies in the eighth and ninth innings, ultimately striking out eight of the 10 batters he faced to push L-C State to victory over the UW.

“[Masters] just overmatched us,” Knutson said. “We just don’t have any answers for that.”

Reach reporter Allen Wagner at sports@dailyuw.com.