Trentacosta stars but Knights lose 15-inning marathon to Elks.

Closer Mark Trentacosta (pictured) pitched five brilliant innings of extended relief but Corvallis lost its longest game of the summer in the 15th inning, 4-3 to Bend.

A two-out, bloop single to center field by Michael Benjamin drove in Toby DeMello with the winning run. DeMello led off the 15th with a double and was still there when Bellingham dinked in his third hit on a 1-0 pitch from Kyle McNutt.

Trentacosta's longest stint in 17 previous appearances was three innings against Bellingham on June 13. He replaced Ben Wetzler to start the ninth and pitched through the 13th, striking out seven.

The Elks (27-19) thus stayed alive in the West Division pennant race by drawing to within three games of the first-place Knights (32-16, 30-16). Third-place Cowlitz (25-21) also won and moved to within five games.

The top two teams advance to the best-of-3 divisional playoffs, which start on Aug. 12.

Saturday's crowd of 907 enabled the Knights to shatter their existing season attendance record. They have now drawn 32,263 fans in 25 home games; the old mark of 31,536 was established in 31 dates in 2009.

It was also the Knights' longest game of the summer, superseding a 4-3, 12-inning loss at Bend on June 10. Their previous longest game at home in 2011 was an 11-inning loss to Kitsap on July 13.

Bend scored twice in the top of the first but a two-run single by Knights' catcher Ryan Gorton tied it in the bottom half. Gorton, who caught the entire game, now has 15 RBIs in his last eight games.

Corvallis went up 3-2 in the fourth on an RBI double by Matt Nylen. Benjamin's solo homer tied it in the sixth and no one scored again until he delivered again in the 15th.

The Knights had 16 baserunners from the seventh through the 14th but couldn't break through. Left fielder Justin Maffei kept Bend alive when gunned down Cade Gotta at home to end the 13th when he tried to score from second on Corey Moore's single.

The Knights host Bend at 12:35 p.m. Sunday. Righty Chris Johnson (4-0, 2.10) of Portland is the probable; he has a 16-inning scoreless streak over his last three starts. Bend's probable is Western Oregon righty Jason Wilson (3-3, 3.04).

Corvallis then heads to Bend for a single game on Monday and then to Klamath Falls for a three-game set with the Gems, starting on Tuesday night. Its next home game is Friday, the Barker Uerlings Insurance mini-bat night nonleague contest against the Dukes of WCL Portland.