Corvallis walks off Marion in home debut

Wednesday, June 10, Corvallis, Ore.  – Corvallis walked off the Marion Berries at Goss Stadium to claim a 3-2 victory in their first home game of the summer.

An opening-night crowd of 1,150 went home satisfied when pinch-runner Mark Carpenter scampered home from third base on a one-out wild pitch. It ended a frustrating offensive night for Corvallis, which had 13 hits but stranded 15 runners.

The Knights (7-4, 6-4 WCL) snapped a two-game losing streak.

Third baseman Zane Garvey (Western Oregon) ripped a double into the left-field corner to start the ninth and was replaced by Carpenter. Carter Stewart (Portland) was walked intentionally; both runners moved up on a perfect sacrifice bunt by incoming UCLA freshman Tate Hammond in his first plate appearance of the season.

With Berkley Reents (George Fox) at bat, Carpenter scored when reliever Ryne Hockman uncorked a wild pitch on his first offering.

Center fielder Max Medina (pictured, above), an incoming Cal Poly freshman, was 3-for-4 with a double and a run to nab Washington Park Advisors Player of the Game laurels.

The Berries took a 1-0 lead in the first but Medina scored on Trey Swygart’s (Portland) sacrifice fly to tie the game. Marion went back ahead 2-1 in the second and held the lead until the seventh, when Corvallis drew even again on a bases-loaded walk to Garvey.

Knights’ starter Morgan Codron (Portland) struck out five in four innings. Relievers Jack Galanida (George Fox) and Mac Zawistoski (Eastern Illinois) added two scoreless innings each to keep the game deadlocked heading into the ninth.

Corvallis reliever Colin Nowacyk (Nebraska) authored a perfect ninth in his season debut and earned the victory when the Knights scored in the bottom half.

The Knights left the bases loaded three times and stranded two runners three other times. They also had runners thrown out on both ends of a double steal to end another budding rally.

Swygart had two hits, a run and an RBI. Garvey and Reents also had two hits each.

The short series concludes at 6:35 p.m. on June 11. The Knights then head to Bend for a June 12-14 showdown with the longtime-rival Bend Elks.

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