Medina sparks Knights to 11-4 blowout win

Thursday, July 9, Portland, Ore.  – The Knights exploded for seven runs in the first inning and hammered Portland 11-4 in the rubber game of their West Coast League series at Walker Stadium.

Knights (21-15, 18-15 WCL, 5-1 second half) took 2 of 3 from their rivals in convincing fashion, bouncing back smartly from a 7-6 loss in Game 2. Corvallis won the opener 13-3.

Incoming Cal Poly freshman Max Medina (pictured, above) was 4-for-4 with a run, an RBI and two walks and reached base in all six plate appearances from the leadoff spot.

Shortstop Ryan Severns (UCSB) was 3-for-5 with a double, a walk and two RBIs and catcher Xavier Rios (CSUN) was 2-for-4 with a homer, two runs and two RBIs.

In the decisive first, incoming UCLA freshman Tate Hammond had a two-run single. Medina, Rios and Severns added RBI singles.

Zane Garvey’s RBI single in the second and a two-run homer by Rios in the fourth sent the Knights ahead 10-1. Rios’s homer was the fifth of the series for Corvallis, which had only four in the first 29 games of the season.

Severns ripped an RBI double in the ninth to account for the Knights’ final tally. He extended his hitting streak to six games; five of those have been multi-hit performances. He is 15-for-28 (.536) in that span, with a homer, five doubles and six RBIs, and has raised his average to .342.

Starter Matt Sherwood (PLU) was the winning pitcher, allowing two runs and five hit over five innings, with three strikeouts. Nate Marshall (Eastern Illinois) added two innings of perfect relief, with two strikeouts.

Corvallis now heads to Springfield for a three-game series, starting on July 10. The scheduled starters are incoming Stanford freshman Bryce Hill (0-0, 4.91); incoming Oregon State freshman Neal Burtis (0-0, 10.00) and UCSB rising sophomore Josh Jannicelli (0-1, 4.32)

Their next home game is a July 14 rematch with Gunderson Baseball. They edged Gunderson 2-1 at Goss on June 24.

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