Knights clobber Sweets 13-0 to sweep series.

Third baseman Caleb Whalen (pictured) of Portland drove in five runs as the Knights (9-4 WCL, 9-4 overall) battered Walla Walla for their fifth win in a row.

A potent Corvallis offense, starting pitcher Jorge Perez (Grand Canyon) and the San Diego Chicken all took turns entertaining the Goss Stadium crowd of 1,504. The Knights banged out 16 hits, Perez pitched five shutout innings for his second win and the Chicken's zany antics drew plenty of laughs in a his return performance in Corvallis.

The Knights have now won four of their five series. Walla Walla (3-9) finished a six-game road trip 0-6, and it scored just one run in three games against the Knights.

Whalen hit a sacrifice fly in the first, a two-run single in the second and a two-run single in the third. He would have had one more RBI on his second hit, but he inadvertently passed a teammate on the basepath, was declared out, and instead of scoring the player he passed was sent back to second base. He still increased his team-leading total to 13.

"The balls were really landing for me and guys were getting on base," said Whalen, who upped his average 31 points to .326. "It's a big tribute to my teammates.

"Every game I am getting more used to the wood bats. It's starting to become natural."

Center fielder Connor Hofmann (Oregon) and catcher Nate Esposito (Oregon State) made the summer debuts and combined for four hits, five runs and two RBIs. Pitcher Carlos Rodriguez (OSU) also played in his first game and struck out two Sweets in a perfect inning.

Perez and relievers Alex Keenan (George Fox), Rodriguez and Chris Bishop (PLU) combined for 11 strikeouts in the three-hit gem. It was the Knights� third shutout in their last four games; they have allowed just one run in their last 38 innings.

Nate Roberts (Seattle) doubled, singled and scored three times; Marc Gallegos (Corban) doubled twice, Nick Torres (Cal Poly) tripled and Alex Michaels (Cal Poly) singled twice for complement Whalen�s offensive heroics. The Knights did not have a strikeout.

The Knights travel to Bend on Saturday to begin a three-game series with the Elks. Saturday and Sunday�s games are at Vince Genna Stadium; Monday night's game is in Corvallis.

AJ Burke of Western Oregon (1-1, 2.92), Trevor Frank of UC Riverside (0-0, 0.00) and Rodriguez (0-0, 0.00) are the Knights' projected starting pitchers for the series. Bend will start Darin Gillies (2-0, 0.00) of Arizona State on Saturday and Clay Bauer (0-1, 2.79)of the College of San Mateo on Sunday.