Bells rally in ninth to salvage series finale. Knights blow 3-1 lead in 9th, lose 4-3.

Jake Locker (pictured) of University of Washington doubled in the ninth and went 3 for 4 in his final summer collegiate game.

The Knights inability to score runs with men at third and less than two out came back to haunt them as Taylor Starr of OSU blew his first save as a Knight. The frosh from Longview unraveled after giving up a two-run game-tying single to Kai Hatch of Utah Valley State as the right-hander walked the next three batters, the last with the bases loaded pushing across the winning run.

With one out and a runner on first, Jake Locker, UW's star quarterback, fouled off several two-strike pitches before doubling to put runners on second and third, setting up Hatch's heroics. Starr struck out pinch-hitter Sean Halton of Lewis-Clark State College, but his first pitch to Hatch was slapped into right tying the game.

The Knights' lack of offensive execution kept Bellingham close as Corvallis had a couple chances to blow the game open early.

In the second, Corvallis scored the game's first run on an errant pick-off attemtpt, the first of 4 Bells' errors on the evening, with runners on first and third allowing Adam Melker of Cal Poly to score. Corvallis then loaded the bases with one out, but couldn't come up with a big hit or score the runner from third as Davis Duren of Oklahoma State took three strikes and then Alex Burg of Washington State was tagged out at home trying to advance on a wild pitch to end the inning.

The Knights loaded the sacks again in the 5th with one out, but could only muster one run on a sac fly by Logan Lotti of Sierra College to take the lead 2-1.

And in the ninth, Corvallis had a golden opportunity to extend its 2-1 lead to 4-1.

Pinch-hitter Kyle Stalker of Willamette singled to start the inning.

Doug Cherry of UW pinch-ran for Stalker and went to third on a ground ball by Dean Green of Oklahoma State that Bellingham's first baseman could not handle for an error. On the same play, the Bells' rightfielder tried to gun Cherry down at third, but his throw was errant allowing Cherry to walk home and Green to reach third.

But with no outs and a man on third, Green was cut down at home on a ground ball to short by Ian Bridges of Sonoma State. Not scoring another run with a man on third and no outs proved to be costly as Bellingham mounted a rally and scored 3 runs with two outs to salvage the final game of the series.

The loss wasted another great outing by starter Jon Berger of San Diego State.

Geoff Nichols, a junior-to be at Oregon, pitched a scoreless eighth inning.

Hatch delivered two-run 9th-inning singles in both game two and game three of the series.

Walk-off losses at Joe Martin are becoming an annual rite of passage for Corvallis. The Knights were beat 4-3 in 2006 on a walk-off two-run error, 1-0 in 2007 on a walk-off homer and 4-3 in 2008 on a walk-off walk.

In 2006, the Knights were also up 3-1 going to the bottom of the ninth. In 2006 and 2007, the Knights went 1-2 at Joe Martin. This season's series win is the Knights first at Bellingham since 2005.

Despite the tough loss, the Knights went 4-2 on its second extended WCCBL road trip.

Corvallis dropped to 19-8 in the WCCBL.

Both Bend and Kitsap registered come from behind road wins to gain a game on the Knights. Kitsap scored 3 in the ninth to erase a 3-0 deficit at Kelowna and won their game 5-3 in extra innings and Bend scored 3 in the seventh and once in the eighth to erase a 4-1 deficit and win 5-4 at Moses Lake. Bend and Kitsap are 5 games back of Corvallis in the West.

Corvallis plays Richey's Market at Goss Stadium Monday, July 14 at 6:35 pm in an exhibition game.

Richey's features the area's top high school players.