Landazuri hurls masterpiece in 2-0 Knights' win.

Angel Landazuri (pictured) went eight shutout innings and Corvallis blanked Bellingham 2-0 on Friday in a matchup of WCL division leaders.

A rising sophomore at UC Riverside, Landazuri allowed four hits and struck out a career-high 10 in his top performance of the summer. He struck out five of the first six, and six of the first nine, batters he faced and did not issue a walk.

He threw 65 strikes in 93 pitches and lowered his ERA to 2.18 from 2.88. His previous longest outing was seven innings against Medford on July 1; he left with a 5-0 lead but was not involved in the decision in an eventual 7-6, 11-inning win for the Knights.

Closer Brandon Choate (Washington) walked the leadoff hitter in the ninth, but but he was erased on a 3-6-1 double play. Choate then ended the game with a strikeout to earn his sixth save, extending his ongoing scoreless streak to 9.1 innings over seven games.

The Knights (26-13, 22-13 WCL) remained two games in front of second-place Bend in the South Division pennant race. Bellingham (26-8 WCL), the runaway leader in the West Division, was shut out for just the second time this season.

Corvallis scored the only runs of the game in the third inning. Logan Ice (Oregon State) doubled and scored on a throwing error on Michael Lucarelli's (Portland) sacrifice bunt. Lucarelli was sacrificed to second, moved to third on a single and scored on Dalton Kelly's (UC Santa Barbara) sacrifice fly.

The series concludes at 7:05 p.m. Saturday. Cal Poly's Justin Calomeni (1-2, 4.33) will start for the Knights, opposed by Stanford's Gabe Cramer (1-1, 2.59) in a matchup of right-handers. The Knights can win their fifth straight WCL series by prevailing on Saturday.