SALEM, Ore. – The Corban University softball team's offense was on full display on Saturday, rattling off a total of 33 runs en route to a pair of blowout victories over Northwest University at Warrior Field. Corban took the first game of the day by an 18-4 score (five innings), while defeating the Eagles in the series finale by a 15-2 margin (five innings).
Heading into today, the squad's previous season-high in scoring was 13 runs. The last time the Warriors scored 18 runs in a game was on February 7, 2014, when the Navy and Gold defeated William Jessup.
Thirteen of the squad's 18 game-one runs came in the bottom of the second, all part of an inning that lasted an hour and three minutes.
The incredible stanza started when Megan Rybar sliced a solo homer off the right-field foul pole to tie the game at one. That would be the first of four homers in the half inning, as Rybar, Ivey Uppinghouse, Madison Wyllie, and Makiah Johnson all went deep in the frame. Adding even further excitement, Uppinghouse and Wyllie's long balls were in back-to-back at-bats.
Northwest began the process of chipping away at the daunting deficit with a pair of runs in the following half inning, but five more runs from the Navy and Gold in the bottom of the third rounded out Corban's historic run output.
A run-scoring sac fly from Wyllie got the five-run rally started, while Sophia Barbosa, Tabby Humphrey, and Johnson each notched RBI singles to account for the rest of the scoring.
In her final start in the circle at Warrior Field, Ally Crakes collected her eighth win of the season, tossing four innings and allowing just one earned run. She has had a tremendous career for the Navy and Gold, as she currently sits in fifth all-time in program history in strikeouts.
The offense picked up right where in left off in game two, as Corban scored at least three runs in all four trips it made the plate in the series finale.
Two-run doubles from Rybar and Barbosa headlined a five-run first for the Navy and Gold, handing a commanding early advantage to Warrior starter Holly Gonzales. Northwest plated a pair in the top of the second, but those runs would be the only blemish on an otherwise strong outing (W, 5 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 3 K) for the lefty.
Wyllie drove in Kaylee Buhrkuhl in the bottom of the second with a single, and Barbosa collected her second two-run double in as many at bats, pushing the Warrior lead to 8-2 after two complete.
In the next inning, Rybar's second homer of the day—a two-run laser to dead center—capped off a four-run third for the squad, as she put the finishing touches on a three-homer weekend in her final home series as a Warrior.
Her fellow senior Uppinghouse then added a roundtripper of her own, scalding a three-run blast off the scoreboard in left center to make it a 15-2 ballgame.
While the big bats in the heart of the order did the bulk of the run-producing, much of the rally was fueled from the bottom of the order, as Humphrey went 2-for-3 with a pair of runs out of the nine spot.
Corban (25-17, 16-8 CCC) will wrap up its regular-season slate next weekend, traveling down to Ashland, Ore. to face off with the No. 1-ranked team in the NAIA. The Warriors will challenge Southern Oregon University in a four-game set on Friday and Saturday.