Knights edge Black Bears 5-3 before a Monday night crowd of 1,164 at Goss Stadium.

Starter Dustin Emmons (pictured) of UC Riverside tossed six solid innings to earn the win.

The senior-to-be right-hander allowed only 4 hits and struck out 8.

"I felt a lot more mechanically sound. That is something me and Coach Wing have been working on; just having everything go in the right direction because my mechanics haven't been my strong suit in the past couple years and that is something I have been trying to really clean up. I put the ball in the strike zone, the defense made the plays and our offense scored the runs and that's pretty much how it shakes down," said Emmons.

�This home stand is huge because the top two teams make it so we're fighting for that second spot, but don't count us out for winning the division."

The Knights jumped on Cowlitz early scoring two runs in the second and a run in the third.

Outfielder Daniel Dillard of Western Oregon delivered a sac fly and first baseman Matt Boyd of OSU a RBI double in the second to put Corvallis up 2-0.

Corvallis increased their lead to 5-1 in the seventh on a two-run double by Dylan Jones of Oregon State.

The Black Bears mounted a rally in the ninth off reliever Dean McArdle of Stanford, but with runners on second and third and the score 5-3, third baseman Griffin Boyd of Mt. Hood CC pulled the hidden ball trick to record the third and final out of the game by tagging the Bears' runner at third giving McArdle his first save of the summer.

With the win, Corvallis improves to 18-14 in the WCL and 22-14 overall.

Griffin Boyd went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and Michael Blake of Mt. Hood CC went 2-for-3 to increase his team-leading batting average to .375.

The Knights and Black Bears play game two of series Tuesday night at Goss. Game time is 6:35 pm.

You can catch the entire series on KEJO 1240 AM. Mike Parker and Jason Schwartz call all the action.