KEIZER, Ore. – In a season that has been riddled with "what ifs" and winning efforts subdued late in games by opposing programs, the Corban University Baseball team put together their best doubleheader results of the year this evening at Volcanoes Stadium, as the Warriors rallied in both game one and game two to defeat I-5 rival and NAIA Top 25 coaches' poll receiving-votes squad Bushnell University in 3-2 and 8-6 stunning comeback victories. The second contest concluded with a two-run walk-off home run by senior first baseman Drew DeMasi that cemented the first doubleheader sweep suffered by the Beacons the entire 2025 regular season thus far.

"Just a fantastic team effort today!" exclaimed Corban head coach Ryan Harris shortly after his team's first doubleheader sweep since opening day. "I'm incredibly proud of how we competed all day. There was never a moment where our team didn't lose confidence in the guys next to them. Jackson pitched incredibly well along with Eddie who got two wins today, Peyton with the go-ahead sacrifice fly and closed out game one on the mound for us. Then Johnny with his first start pitched great along with Tanner in relief. Drew turned into Superman in the leadoff spot and capped off game two with a no-doubt walk-off homer!"

Game 1 – Corban 3, (RV) Bushnell 2

Thanks to an incredible starting effort from junior Jackson Young, the Warriors (9-25, 5-18) were able to open their four-game Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) series with the Beacons (27-9, 17-6) on the right side of a late-inning comeback, as both teams scored a single run in their own offensive halves of the second inning and Bushnell took a slight lead in the sixth after centerfielder Will Hudler took Young deep over the centerfield batter's eye.

However, Young and the Corban bullpen would have the last laugh over their I-5 interstate rivals, as they held the Beacons scoreless for the remainder of the contest to give their offense a chance down the stretch, which they delivered on in the bottom of the eighth. After wasting away a leadoff double in the seventh, DeMasi kicked off the eighth with another leadoff double down the rightfield line, followed by a walk drawn by junior shortstop Isaac Bateman and a perfectly placed drag bunt from senior third baseman Ryan Clay that he was able to leg out and load the bases for redshirt junior catcher Josh Miyazawa.

Needing just a long flyball to tie the ballgame, Miyazawa delivered to score senior pinch runner Fran Gross from third and drove the ball deep enough to allow Bateman to move from second to third, a move that would prove integral to the Warriors' comeback win. The next at-bat, junior designated hitter Peyton Rickard skied his own sacrifice fly for Bateman to skirt home from third and provide the Navy and Gold with a 3-2 lead after trailing 2-1 to start the frame.

With three outs separating the Warriors from their first win over the Beacons since April of 2023, Rickard took to the mound for his first save bid of the 2025 season and despite allowing a two-out single up the middle, settled back in and induced a lineout to centerfield to lock up the game one victory.

Young was masterful on the mound for Coach Harris and company after allowing an early unearned run to score, as he went 7.0 innings and was charged with two runs (one earned) off five hits and a walk while striking out a pair of Beacons. Redshirt sophomore reliever Eddie Gould picked up his first win of the season after a scoreless top of the eighth where he hit a batter but otherwise did his job to secure two flyouts and a groundball out, while Rickard picked up the first save of his Corban tenure.

Bushnell game one starter Austin Wolfe pitched deep into today's opener and was effective enough (one earned run, four hits, five strikeouts) to keep Corban off the board in all but the second inning yet accepted the no-decision after the Beacon bullpen collapsed in the eighth. Reliever Loreto Siniscalchi allowed the first two runners to reach base in the eighth before giving way to relief pitcher Alec Gums, who allowed the two sac flies that scored the game-tying and go-ahead runs against Siniscalchi's ERA.

DeMasi kicked off Senior Weekend at the top of the Corban lineup for the first time all season and did so with a 2-for-4 outing, while Clay, Miyazawa, Rickard, senior rightfielder Noah Owens, and sophomore leftfielder Lucas Mertlich all picked up base hits.

The biggest offensive firepower for Bushnell came via Hudler's solo shot in the sixth, while shortstop Chase Nye and catcher Nate Stevens both had two hits from the leadoff and seven-holes in the Beacons' lineup, respectively.

Game 2 – Corban 8, (RV) Bushnell 6

A rollercoaster of a game two had both squads feeling the highs and lows of collegiate baseball throughout an exhausting nine-inning affair, with the Warriors once again digging deep in the clutch to shock their Beacon counterparts and extend Bushnell's losing skid to a third-straight contest.

The Beacons took an early 3-0 lead in the top of the second after the first three batters reached safely and scored following a fielding error that allowed the inning to progress, yet true freshman starting pitcher John Brabb was able to settle down and minimize the damage through his first career start.

Corban's offense scored three runs of their own over the next two innings to tie the game at 3-3 in the fourth thanks to an RBI-groundout from Owens in the third, and RBI-single from DeMasi to score their first run in the fourth, and a one-run double off the bat of Miyazawa that say DeMasi truck around from second base and knot the game back up.

However, Brabb's struggles on the mound picked up in the top of the fifth which allowed two more Bushnell runs to score, which were immediately overwritten in the bottom half when junior centerfielder Chase Elliott and DeMasi knocked RBI-singles after an inning-opening dropped pop-up on the Beacons' infield allowed the frame to continue.

DeMasi, the hero of game two, came through once again with a sacrifice fly to score Elliott who had just led the top of the seventh off with his second triple of the day, representing DeMasi's third base hit of the contest thus far, with at least one at-bat remaining. Bushnell tied the game up once again in the top of the eighth with a moonshot solo homer off the bat of catcher Max Richards to set up an exciting ninth inning.

Gould entered to pitch the top of the ninth for Corban and after a one-out walk, promptly secured back-to-back pop ups in the infield to bring Warrior Nation supporters to their feet as the home team exchanged their gloves for bats heading into a 6-6 bottom of the ninth, looking for their first walk-off winner of the year.

A quick two outs for the Navy and Gold had everyone considering extra innings in an already two-and-a-half-hour game, until Elliott drew a full count walk to flip the lineup card over and bring DeMasi to the plate in yet another big moment for the first-year senior transfer.

After watching a chest-high fastball called for a strike, DeMasi sat on another one of the same pitch selection and location on the very next pitch, as he drove a towering flyball into the spring night sky, clearing the left centerfield fence by several feet and sending Volcanoes Stadium into bedlam in what unquestionably represents the program's best win of the year and a surefire candidate for several categories in the 2026 Golden Warrior Awards.

Brabb had some great moments in his first career collegiate start for Corban baseball, as he went 4.0+ innings with four earned runs allowed off five hits along with two strikeouts. Junior relief pitcher Tanner Martinez held the Beacons scoreless over his 3.0 innings on two hits, three walks, while picking up four punchouts, while junior reliever Joshua Pedronan allowed the solo homer to Richards but nothing more in his inning of work in the eighth. Gould picked up his second win of the day after a scoreless top of the ninth.

Bushnell starting pitcher Braden Proud lasted just 3.1 innings with three earned runs scoring on five hits, three walks, two hit batsmen and a pair of strikeouts, while reliever Nate Rasmussen kept his perfect ERA on the season intact after both runs that he allowed to score crossed home plate unearned. Relief pitcher Garrett Vohs took his first loss of the season with two completely different innings of work, as he struck out the side in the eighth before allowing the walk-off homer to DeMasi in the bottom of the ninth for his first earned runs surrendered of the year.

DeMasi's ninth-inning bomb capped off the single-best outing of his short-lived Corban career at the plate, as he finished 4-for-5 in game two with a career-best five RBI and scored two runs along the way. Elliott had an almost equally impressive performance for the Warriors from the bottom of Coach Harris' lineup, finishing 3-for-3 with a pair of triples and scored half of the team's eight runs on his own.

The Bushnell offense scattered eight hits across seven different batters to score six runs and put themselves in a spot to pick up a key road conference win, led by Hudler who finished 2-for-3 with a run scored. Richards collected two RBI and scored two runs for the Beacons.

Tomorrow morning and into the early afternoon, the Corban baseball program will host their final regular season home contests at Volcanoes Stadium looking to earn a series win against Bushnell, with a Senior Day ceremony taking place between games three and four of the series at roughly 11:30am, as they will celebrate 13 senior student-athletes participating in their final home contest.

Follow Corban Athletics:
Facebook l Twitter l Instagram l YouTube l Email