Bishop homers but Bend prevails 5-2 to sweep series.

Designated hitter Cameron Bishop (pictured) homered but Bend edged Corvallis 5-2 on Wednesday night to sweep their WCL first-round playoff series.

The South Division champions, Bend (37-16) thus advanced to the WCL Championship Series for the first time since 2010 and for only the second time in history. The Elks crushed the Knights 12-1 in Corvallis on Tuesday night in Game 1.

The Knights (38-24) were the wild-card entrant in the four-team playoffs, which also include defending-champion Bellingham and Kelowna.

Bend will face either Kelowna or Bellingham in the WCL Championship Series, which starts Saturday. Kelowna won 6-0 on Wednesday night and will host a decisive third game in that series on Thursday night. Bellingham won Tuesday's opener, 2-1.

The Knights never led after Bend took a 1-0 lead in the second inning. Bishop (UC Irvine) hammered a solo homer in the fourth inning to briefly tie the game 1-1, but the Elks responded with three runs in the bottom half to assume a 4-1 advantage.

Michael Farris (UC Riverside) doubled in Christian Donahue (Oregon State) to make it 4-2 in the sixth. Bend regained a three-run lead at 5-2 with a single run in the seventh.

The Knights mounted a rally in the ninth when Clay Fisher (UC Santa Barbara) and Josh George (Cal Poly) led off with singles off reliever Daniel Bies, bringing the tying run to the plate. After two outs, Emilio Alcantar's (Lewis-Clark State in 2015-16) infield single loaded the bases.

However, Bies retired Nick Madrigal (OSU in 2015-16) on a disputed called third strike to end the game and eliminate the Knights short of the Championship Series for the first time since 2010.

Bishop and Alcantar had two hits each for Corvallis. Bishop hit .429 (3-7) in the series, with a double, a homer and an RBI.

Corvallis starter Alex Nesbitt (Washington) allowed three earned runs and seven hits in five innings, had four strikeouts and took the loss. Harrison McGhee (Concordia) pitched two scoreless innings of relief and had three strikeouts.