BOX SCORE 1 | BOX SCORE 2 CALDWELL, Idaho – Corban bashed five home runs to rally from an early deficit in the second game Sunday afternoon on the way to earning a Cascade Collegiate Conference softball split with host College of Idaho at Symms Field.

The host Coyotes won the opener, 5-1, behind the 12-strikeout pitching of ace Nickayla Skinner. The second game was an offensive party as the teams combined for 21 runs and 26 hits before the Warriors walked off with a 11-10 victory.

Corban is now 16-12 overall and 3-7 in the conference, while the 'Yotes, ranked No. 22 in the NAIA national poll, go to 15-8 and 7-5 in the CCC.

COLLEGE OF IDAHO 5, CORBAN 1

The Warriors ran into one of the CCC's best pitchers in Skinner, who four times this season has earned the conference's pitcher of the week honor. She retired nine straight Corban batters to start the game, and nine of the first 12 outs she recorded came on strikeouts.

That doesn't mean, however, that the Warriors weren't without their chances.

Annie Owen got the team's first hit, a leadoff single in the fourth, and she then stole second and third before coming home on a throwing error by the catcher. That turned out to be Corban's only run, but in that same inning the Warriors loaded the bases with two outs before Skinner recorded an inning-ending strikeout. Corban had two singles in the fifth, including Owen's second of the game, but a caught stealing prevented that from becoming a threat. Finally, in the seventh, one-out singles by Lounette Jackson and Paige Martin went for naught as Skinner closed out the game with a strikeout and fly out.

Jessica Slate took the pitching loss and is now 4-3 this season. She allowed five runs on eight hits while walking one and striking out one in six innings.

CORBAN 11, COLLEGE OF IDAHO 10

This one was a slugfest, and the Warriors responded in a big way after falling behind 6-1 after two innings.

Owen led off with a home run, but the 'Yotes put five runs on the board in the bottom of the first and one more in the second to take a 6-1 lead.

That's when the Warriors started their rally. They scored three times in the third, including a two-run homer by Owen and a bases loaded hit batter. They got two in the fourth on a leadoff homer by Shelby Mauermann, a double by Owen and RBI single by Kyrianna Sorensen, and added two more in the fifth on a two-run blast by Jackson.

Leading 8-6, Corban scored three times in the sixth inning on a two-run homer by Breonna Bejaran and a run-scoring single by Jackson.

College of Idaho wasn't done, however, scoring twice in the sixth and getting two more in the seventh before a ground out ended the game with the tying run on second base.

After going 2-for-4 in the opener, Owen was 3-for-4 with three runs scored and three RBI in the second game. Sorensen had three hits, Courtney Castronovo added two, and Jackson contributed two hits and three RBI.

Samantha Gutwig, who pitched four innings of relief, picked up the victory to improve her record to 5-2. Danielle Horne pitched an inning and earned her first save of the season.
 
"Today was a good day at the ball park. The girls came out and really executed our offensive game plan very well against some very good pitching, and gutted out a quality win," head coach Nathan Ohta said. "I always say that wins never come easy in the Cascade Conference, so it was a big step for this team to come from behind against one of the top teams in the country to win on the road. Jess threw a really good game in game one, Sam and Dani did a great job in relief in game two. They gave our offense a chance to win that game. We had a lot of big hits, but Annie Owen definitely was the bright spot offensively. She came up huge for us today."

Corban returns to conference action on Monday afternoon when they play host Eastern Oregon in a doubleheader.