By: Ryan Lackey

SALEM, Ore. --- The Bruins lost to Corban University on Wednesday afternoon, 11-8 – a respectable score, considering the Bruins trailed 10-0 after the first two innings. In fact, the Bruins offense surged towards the game's conclusion, but a six-run seventh was too little, too late.

Starter Nathan Higa took the loss for the Bruins after a rather inauspicious outing in which Higa gave up eight runs in an inning of work.

Offensively, the Bruins had a stellar day. AJ Valencia went 2-3 with a triple and two RBIs. Zach Rapacz and Andrew Reichenbach both collected two hits and knocked in a run each. Designated Hitter Brandon Wileman, who went 0-2, managed to add two RBIs without a single hit.

Higa's first inning could have been much worse. Nic Coffman doubled in Corban's first run, and another double from Peter Martin and a subsequent single off the bat of Stockton Taylor gave the Warriors a 3-0 lead.

In the second, the wheels came off for Higa. Four straight singles and a passed ball allowed in three more runs, and Nick Auld, who relieved Higa, could not stop the bleeding. Auld walked Taylor to force in another run, and Hayden Calvert's long double and Jackson Smith's single meant Corban took a 10-0 lead into the third inning.

Remarkably undaunted, the Bruins immediately reduced the deficit to eight in the third. After Gabe Louthan singled, Valencia's long triple put in one run, and Wileman's towering sacrifice fly gifted the Bruins another.

Both offenses dragged through the game's midsection, but the Bruins came to life again in the seventh. Clay Mott walked, and Louthan and Kadyn Nannini were both hit by pitches to load the bases for Valencia. Corban's reliever Ryan Wood could not find the strike zone; he walked Valencia to force in a run. Daniel Aranda, who came on for Wood, was no more accurate, walking Wileman to bring in another run and make the score 10-4. Rapacz's single scored another, and then incredibly, Reichenbach waited out yet another walk. With the score at 10-6, Zachery Muenster's sacrifice fly and Mott's single brought the Bruins within two, 10-8.

Corban combined a double and a single in the bottom of the seventh, though, to add a run of insurance, and the 11-8 score stood as the final.

The Bruins drop to 10-11 with the loss but can push back up to .500 on Friday, when they begin a four-game set at Chapman.