Knights tip Sweets 9-6, close in on Bend in South.

Center fielder Blake Drake (pictured) had three hits, scored once and drove in three runs on Friday night to spark Corvallis' 9-6 comeback win over Walla Walla.

His biggest hit came with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth inning. He cleared the bases with a line-drive double into the left-field corner that enabled the Knights (22-13 all, 19-13 WCL) to erase a 6-3 Walla Walla lead.

"I was just trying to stay relaxed and things just worked out in my favor," the junior-to-be at Concordia University said. "I just tried to find a fastball and I found one," and tied the game 6-6 in the process.

Making the hit even sweeter was the presence of his family, which came up from Ramona, Calif., this week to help him celebrate his 20th birthday on Thursday.

"It's great to have my family here, especially with birthday yesterday," he said. "It was a special day and I'm glad they could share it with me."

The Knights took the lead for good with two runs in the sixth. Seth Heck's single scored the first and the second crossed on a squeeze sacrifice bunt by Chris Rabago. Rabago's RBI single added yet another insurance run in the eighth inning.

Like Wenatchee in the Knights' previous series, the Sweets (19-13 WCL) came to Corvallis as one of the hottest teams in the league, with eight wins in their last 10 games. They now have lost two straight and saw their North Division lead trimmed to 1.5 games over the idle AppleSox.

The Knights are now 7-1 in their last eight WCL games and are 9-1 on an 11-game homestand that concludes on Saturday night. They moved to within one game of first-place Bend in the South Division, as the Elks (21-13) lost 10-4 to Medford at home.

Oregon State incoming freshman Kevin Flemer got the win with four no-hit innings in relief of starter Casey Bloomquist. Flemer struck out four and faced just one batter over the four-inning minimum. He has a 1.17 ERA over 15.1 innings in six appearances.

Brandon Choate then authored a scoreless ninth for his second save. Flemer and Choate did not allow a hit, and permitted only three baserunners, over the final five innings as the Knights won their third series in a row.

Drake and Heck had three hits apiece to lead a 14-hit attack. Rabago singled twice, scored and had two RBIs, and Peter Van Gansen and Dane Lund had two hits apiece.

The crowd of 1,150 pushed the Knights' all-time total to 200,068 in six-plus seasons in Corvallis, and bumped the season total to 24,686.

The series concludes at 6:40 tonight. The scheduled starters are lefty Andrew Naderer (2-1, 1.68) for the Knights and righty Chris Lovejoy (2-0, 2.16) for the Sweets.

Corvallis is idle on Sunday and opens a three-game series at Bellingham on Monday night. The next home game is Thursday night's non-league contest against the Mid-Valley Rockets American Legion team.