Knights whitewash BlueJackets 6-0. Eskew, Rue and Brookey combine to shutout Kitsap.

Logan Lotti, a junior-to be at Oregon State, went 3 for 4 with a two-run homer and 4 RBI. Corvallis evened its home series with Kitsap in front of 710 fans thanks to Lotti's big bat and a masterful start from Jared Eskew of Cal Poly. The junior southpaw from Bakersfield threw 7 scoreless innings to earn the win. Eskew allowed five hits while striking out 5.

"We swang the bats real well against these guys up in Kitsap and were hoping to do the same again down here," Knights' head coach Brooke Knight said.

In the first inning, third baseman Doug Cherry of Washington reached safely on an error. Cherry moved to second on a sac bunt by frosh shortstop Richie Jimenez of Riverside CC. After moving to third on a fly ball to right by Lotti, Mt. Hood CC's Billy Clontz knocked Cherry in with a single.

Cherry reached on error for a second straight time leading-off the third. after Jimenez singled, Lotti collected his first hit, a RBI single to left, putting the Knights up 2-0.

In the fifth it was Cherry again who reached safely. This time Doug singled to left to get things started. With one out, Lotti launched a high line drive over the left field fence for his second homer at Goss Stadium giving the Knights the 4-0 lead. It was Lotti's team leading fourth homer of the season.

"It felt good," said Lotti. "Every at-bat is a new at-bat, so after that fly out it was new. To be honest, I really hustled out of the box on the home run because I didn't think it was high enough to get over the fence. I just started running and once I heard the crowd go nuts is when I kicked it into cruise control. I feel really good at the plate right now, really loose."

In the seventh, the Knights scored their final two runs. Jimenez was hit by a pitch with one out. Then Lotti tripled to right-center scoring Richie, Lotti's fourth RBI of the game.

Lotti would then score the Knights' sixth run on a sac fly to center by Clontz, the Corvallis native's team leading 19th RBI.

Eskew worked quickly taking the count to two balls or more only seven times.

"Jared came out and threw real well with the fastball and change up," Knight said. "He got ahead of guys. It was a fun game and a good time to get a win."

Eskew was replaced in the eighth by Ben Rue of Concordia who retired the side in order.

Chris Brookey, a sophomore-to-be at Southwestern, walked his first batter in the ninth before retiring the next three he faced. The combined shutout was the staff's 7th whitewashing of the season.

"You have to give a lot of credit to Eskew in limiting the other team," Lotti said. "The bullpen came and threw really well. Stellar pitching and hitting today combined got us the win, looks like the pitchers are going to get their batting practice tomorrow."

With the win, Corvallis improves to 20-9 in the WCCBL. The Knights sport the league's lowest team ERA (2.21) and highest fielding percentage (.973).

Logan Lotti now leads the league in batting with a league .356 average and in total bases with 58.

The Knights and BlueJackets play a rubber game on Sunday at 5:05 pm.

The series finale will be broadcast on 990 AM The Legend. The voice of the Knights, Mike Parker, calls all the action.