CALDWELL, Idaho – It was a tale of two games for the Corban baseball team on Saturday afternoon, as Warrior pitchers allowed eight runs in the first game of a doubleheader and then bounced back to shut out College of Idaho (COI) in the nightcap.
Game 1: COI 8, Corban 4
College of Idaho jumped in front of Corban with a run in the bottom of the second inning, when Jake Bowman hit a sacrifice fly off starting pitcher Connor Mattison (Salem, Ore.). After a scoreless third inning, though, the game quickly unraveled for Mattison and the Warriors, as the Yotes notched three runs in the fourth and four more in the bottom of the fifth.
Corban staged a comeback later, taking advantage of four hits and three COI errors to cut the lead to 8-4. That was as close as the Warriors would get, however, as they were shut down in the final frame to seal to four run defeat.
Corban was led offensively by Jalen Garcia (Billings, Mont.) and Benjamin Liogon (Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico) with two hits apiece, while Vince Gonzalez (Kennewick, Wash.) and Tyler Reitz (Billings, Mont.) notched the only RBIs for the Navy and Gold.
Mattison was responsible for all eight runs (seven earned) and suffered the loss. Jonathan Russomano (Tarzana, Calif.) and Daniel Gober (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) tossed 3.2 innings of scoreless relief.
Yotes starting pitcher Zach Draper allowed four runs (two earned) in eight innings to earn his eighth win of the season.
Cole Mansanerez and Dalton Ridgway had three hits each for COI.
Game 2: Corban 3, COI 1
Game two went much differently for both teams, as Warrior starting pitcher Caleb Henry (Salem, Ore.) puzzled the Yotes hitters, hurling five scoreless innings en route to his first win of the season.
After Henry's performance, Daniel Aranda (Lebanon, Ore.) came on in relief and was lights out, allowing only one run in four innings to earn his second save.
Unlike the first game, there were no big innings in game two for either team, as the Warriors scored once in each of the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings to account for their three runs. In the top of the fifth frame, Garcia opened up the scoring with an RBI single to score Davis Alderman (Kennewick, Wash.), who had doubled to start the inning. Corban's run in the sixth came via three consecutive hits, including an RBI single by Zach Penrod (Nampa, Idaho). Jarett Thoren (Nampa, Idaho) brought in the third and final run for the Warriors with an RBI single in the seventh.
"We won the battle of the strike zone offensively and defensively in game two against the conference leaders," said head coach Jeff McKay, "Henry had his best start of the season, and Aranda was solid in relief. Two two-strike hits were big. That is the type of team hitting we need to have."
Alderman and Garcia each had two knocks for Corban, while Mitch Skaggs tallied two hits for COI.
Jake Eddy picked up the loss for the Yotes.
"Conference wins on the road against the top half of the conference are tough to come by. We need to be ready to go tomorrow."
Corban (12-18, 8-9 NAIA West) will play two more conference games tomorrow, finishing out the four game series against COI (26-9, 13-3 NAIA West). The first pitch is scheduled for 10 a.m. PST. Live stats will be available here.
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