KEIZER, Ore. – After their fourth and final contest of a four-game series was cut short due to heavy rain, the Corban University Baseball team and Warner Pacific University Knights wrapped up their matchup this afternoon at Volcanoes Stadium with a 12-8 victory for the Warriors to secure three wins over the Knights. Today's win for the Navy and Gold was in a non-conference contest with the Knights due to new conference rules over the first three series of the conference season, yet still provided Corban with their sixth overall regular season win of the year.
"Proud of our guys finishing this series by winning the conference slate and series overall," detailed Corban head coach Ryan Harris. "We are locking in our offensive mentality and like where we are production wise. On the mound, we struggled at times giving up free bases and I'd like to see us continue the process of attacking and establishing who we are on the mound. We are going to continue to give guys opportunities until they solidify their roles. Looking forward to this weekend playing OIT at home and can't wait to compete against them."
Picking up in the bottom of the fourth inning today were the Warriors (6-5, 2-1) who had established a 10-4 lead prior to the umpires from Saturday's doubleheader deciding to call the game early due to weather, with the entire lineup finding offensive opportunities through the first three innings before Warner Pac (2-4, 1-2) snagged four runs back in the top of the fourth.
Sophomore leftfielder Lucas Mertlich secured put another run on the board as the "leadoff" hitter of today's game before the inning ended on the ensuing play, providing the Warriors with an 11-4 lead entering the fifth. A plethora of walks resulted in three runs for Warner Pacific in their next scoring half, yet the lead remaining at four entering the ninth inning after Corban and WPU exchanged single runs in the seventh and eighth. Finally, senior reliever Sam Greenhalgh shut the Knights down in a 1-2-3 top of the ninth to wrap up their 12-8 win at Volcanoes Stadium.
Junior starting pitcher Peyton Rickard traded his bat for the mound to begin this contest back on the 22nd, walking a pair of batters in 2.0 innings but not qualifying for the win due to the necessary inning limit for a starter. Instead, freshman reliever John Brabb earned the winning decision in this contest after tossing a shutout inning of his own in the third. Seven of the eight Warner Pacific runs to score were charged to junior relief pitcher Tanner Martinez who walked five and allowed three of the Knights' four hits in 2.0 innings, with junior reliever Jackson Young halting the WPU progress in the sixth with a clean frame. Redshirt sophomore relief pitcher Eddie Gould allowed a run in 2.0 innings off a hit but nothing more before giving way to Greenhalgh.
Warner Pac starter Brady Windham was charged with six runs on six hits over the first 2.0 innings to accept the losing decision, while reliever Mason Deverna surrendered the next five runs in 1.2 innings for every accounted earned run in the game for Corban. A pair of Knights pitched the final 4.1 innings remaining and allowed just a single unearned run on four hits.
The senior leadership of third baseman Ryan Clay and first baseman Nathaniel Gutierrez at the plate powered the Warriors to victory in game four, as they both finished 3-for-4 offensively with Clay scoring two runs and Gutierrez securing two RBI. Redshirt sophomore second baseman Ethan Ammerman's two-run triple along with an RBI-ground out resulted in the game-high mark in RBI with three.
All four of the WPU hits came from four different batters, with shortstop Colby Barnes tying Ammerman in the game-high RBI tally with three of his own.
Corban baseball will be back at Volcanoes Stadium this upcoming weekend for a four-game, three-day conference series with Oregon Tech (8-4, 1-2) starting at 11am on Friday for a single game over the afternoon.
Follow Corban Athletics:
Facebook l Twitter l Instagram l YouTube l Email
