KEIZER, Ore. – After a slow game one, during which the Corban University baseball team fell by an 8-2 final score to the visiting Oregon Tech Owls, the Warriors looked like a completely different team in game two on Friday. Corban's bats exploded for 15 hits and 14 runs—punctuated by four long balls—en route to a 14-4 (seven innings) triumph in the latter half of the twin bill.
"A split on the day versus a good team is a good day," said head coach Derek Legg. "We're looking to commit to being fully ourselves and trusting each other for two full games tomorrow."
This weekend marks a crucial series between the two in-state Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) rivals, with just a game separating the squads in the conference standings entering today's games.
Corban drew first blood in the series opener, with Nate Cantonwine going yard with a solo shot in the first to open the scoring. Estenio Sede followed that up with an RBI single, part of a two-run first and promising start for the Navy and Gold.
That would be all Owl starter Patrick Arman would allow in the contest, however, as he would hold Corban scoreless and only surrender two hits in his next six innings of work.
Despite jumping out to an early advantage, the Warriors were unable to hold the lead for long, allowing four runs in the top of the second. Two of those runs were unearned, as the Corban defense committed three-straight two-out errors to prolong the costly frame.
Oregon Tech added to its lead in the third, sixth, and seventh, but the story of the contest was Arman's performance on the hill, settling in after the shaky start and stifling the Navy and Gold lineup.
Game two was a completely different story, however, as the Warrior bats struck early and often in one of the squad's most impressive offensive showings in recent memory.
After two quick outs in the team's first at-bats, Corban manufactured a four-run rally with two outs in the bottom of the first. Cantonwine walked to spark the action, coming around to score on an RBI single from Maxwell Jeffrey. Jeffrey's run-scoring knock was a part of a string of four-consecutive two-out base hits, as Chris Grayson and Reese Fawley also plated runs with timely hits in the stanza.
Determined to change the narrative of the previous contest by adding on to the early lead, the Warriors then struck for four more in the bottom of the third. Fawley had the biggest knock of the inning, bringing home three runs with one swing of the bat, hooking a no-double over the short fence in left field for his second homer of the season.
That was the first of many round-trippers for the Navy and Gold, as the squad played home run derby in the fourth with three more long balls.
Cantonwine blasted his second of the day to kick-start the six-run stanza, but Travis Moore's grand slam was the biggest swing of the inning.
Moore's grand slam was his first homer as a member of the Navy and Gold, and it knocked Owl starter Dylan Grogan out of the ballgame.
Justin Tow rudely then greeted reliever Ryan Poling, skying the first pitch he saw from him over the left-field fence to go back-to-back with Moore.
With all of the offensive fireworks, it would be easy to overlook the performance on the hill from Corban's Nate Martin, who turned in six and one-third impressive innings to earn his second win of the season.
The sophomore righty scattered five hits and struck out six, surrendering just three earned runs in the victory.
The Warriors (8-18, 7-7 CCC) and Owls (13-15, 8-6 CCC) will be right back at it tomorrow, wrapping up their four-game series with another 12 p.m. doubleheader at Volcanoes Stadium.