Wednesday, June 22, Corvallis, Ore. – Corvallis wasted little time in returning to the win column as it scored five times in the first inning in a 10-5 victory over Walla Walla before a crowd of 1,140 at Goss Stadium.
Held to four hits in a 2-1 loss in their previous game, the Knights (10-2 all, 10-1 WCL) had five hits in the home first and never looked back while evening the West Coast League series at one game each.
Titus Dumitru (LBCC), Zander Darby (UCSB), Jake Leitgeb (Washington) and Temo Becerra (Stanford) had RBI hits and Ely Kennel added a sacrifice fly in the decisive first.
Corvallis scored twice more in the second on an error and again in the third on Logan Johnstone’s (Gonzaga) double for an 8-0 lead. The Knights then added single runs in the fifth and seventh.
Johnstone tripled, doubled, scored twice and drove in a run. Scott doubled twice and scored twice. Dumitru drove in two runs, and Becerra doubled, singled and drove in a run.
Utah lefty Brady Maylett (pictured, above) got the win with 2.2 innings of scoreless relief. He entered with one out and the bases loaded in the fifth, allowed one inherited runner to score, then shut down the Sweets on one hit over the next two innings.
The rubber game of the series is set for 6:35 p.m. Thursday. Oregon State righty Ryan Brown (0-0, 9.00), a reliever with the Beavers, will make his starting debut for the Knights. Southern University righty Anthony Fidanza (0-0, 9.00) is the probable for the Sweets.
The Knights then close out their opening homestand against longtime WCL rival Bellingham, the North Division leader, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The probable starting rotation is OSU righty Ian Lawson (0-0, 0.00), Utah righty Jaden Harris (0-0, 4.76) and Gonzaga righty Nathan DeSchryver (1-0, 0.00).