Bloomquist, Surrey team up to lead Knights by Elks.

Starter Casey Bloomquist (pictured) went seven strong innings and Elliot Surrey notched a two-inning save on Wednesday night as Corvallis beat Bend 5-3 to even their series 1-1.

A rising sophomore at Cal Poly, Bloomquist allowed three runs and six hits and had two strikeouts over seven innings to win his second straight start. A rising sophomore at UC-Irvine, Surrey struck out three and stranded the tying runs on base in the bottom of the ninth for his first save.

Outfielder Grant Melker doubled, singled and scored, catcher Chris Rabago homered and had two RBIs and outfielder Nate Blackham drove in the go-ahead runs with a seventh-inning single for the Knights (12-9 overall, 11-9 WCL). Corvallis now trails first-place Bend by two games in the South Division pennant race.

The Knights opened the scoring in the second on Rabago's solo homer, his first of the summer. Bend responded with two unanswered runs, but the Knights went back ahead 3-2 in the fourth on an RBI double by Portland junior-to-be Cody Lenahan and Rabago's run-scoring groundout.

Bend tied it 3-3 with a solo homer in the last of the fourth. It stayed that way until the Knights broke through in the seventh on a two-run single by Blackham, a redshirt junior at Washington State. Bloomquist then escaped a two-on, no-out jam in the home half to preserve the 5-3 lead and Surrey took it from there.

Two infield hits with two outs in the last of the ninth brought the winning run to the plate for the Elks (13-7). But Surrey retired Tanner Ring on a line drive to Lenahan at third base to give the Knights their seventh straight win in Game 2 of a three-game series.

The series concludes at 6:35 p.m. Thursday; lefty Andrew Naderer (1-0, 1.80) of Grand Canyon is the Knights' scheduled starter. They open a three-game series against the Kitsap BlueJackets in Silverdale, Wash., on Friday.