BOX SCORE SALEM – Willamette scored in each of the first five innings and then held on to defeat Corban, 9-6, in a non-league baseball game played Wednesday afternoon at John Lewis Field.

The Warriors fall to 18-17 overall while the Bearcats improve to 17-10.

Following base hits by Jordan Johansen and Daniel Orr, Marc Gallegos hit his second home run of the season over the left field fence to stake the Warriors to a 3-0 first inning lead.

That lead lasted only until the bottom of the first when the Bearcats scored four runs to take the lead for good. Ty Wyatt hit a run-scoring double for the first run, but a dropped fly ball caused by the sun led to an additional three unearned runs crossing the plate.

Trailing 5-3 in the top of the third, Corban got a run back on a single by Gallegos and a triple by Davis Alderman, but Willamette added two runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 7-4 advantage.

The Warriors added a tally in the fourth when Landon Frost hit a single, stole second and eventually came home on a base hit by Daniel Orr, and it was Orr who provided the final run with a home run in the seventh. The round-tripper was the second of the season for the junior first baseman.

Both teams finished with 11 hits with Orr collecting three and Johansen, Gallegos and Alderman getting two apiece for Corban.

Tyler Bennett, Corban's starting pitcher, took the loss and saw his record fall to 0-2. He was one of five pitchers in the game for the Warriors, while Willamette had eight different hurlers as both teams approached the mid-week non-league game with a "pitcher by committee" approach. Evan Giddings was the winning pitcher and Jackson Watt, the only Willamette pitcher to go more than one inning, pitched the eighth and ninth to get his fourth save of the season for the Bearcats.

Corban is back in action this weekend when it hosts Oregon Tech in a four-game NAIA West series. The teams are slated to play a doubleheader at noon on Friday and another two-game set starting at 11 a.m. on Saturday.