Brooks Hatch Blog: Two Alums Make D1Baseball’s All-Decade Team

Happy New Year, everyone, from the world-wide headquarters (WWHQ) of the Corvallis Knights, your 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 West Coast League champions!

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Alums Nick Madrigal (2015, pictured above) and Adley Rutschman (2016) were named to D1Baseball’s all-decade team for the 2010-19. Both played for us the summer before their freshman seasons at Oregon State.

Madrigal was named the West Coast League’s No. 5 pro prospect by Perfect Game and the No. 8 pro prospect by Baseball America following the 2015 season.

Congrats to Adley and Nick. Please click here for more details on that story, from D1baseball.com.

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Some more alumni news, from the world of Frontier League independent baseball:

• The Southern Illinois Miners exercised their 2020 contract option on pitcher Nick Duron (2015), even though he is now the property of the Seattle Mariners. Released by Boston in 2018, Duron was 2-0, 1.35 with two saves in 10 games with Southern Illinois before signing with the Mariners as a free agent and playing the rest of the season at Modesto in the high-A California League.

• The Quebec Capitales released catcher Chris Shaw (2014). He hit .207 in 57 games there in 2019, with two homers and 22 RBIs. He played four years in the Baltimore organization before being released after the 2018 season.

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Our 2020 schedule has now been finalized. We will open the season against the Portland Sea Dogs on June 2 on Weyerhaeuser Science, Engineering and Art Day. For the complete home schedule, please click here. For the complete schedule, please click here.

The Knights set a franchise record for total attendance in 2019 by drawing 59,357 fans to Goss Stadium in 36 regular-season and playoff games. We averaged 1,721 fans per regular-season game, and 1,071 fans for the four playoff games.

Thanks to the best fans in the West Coast League.

The WCL All-Star Game is scheduled for July 20 at Paul Thomas Sr. Field in Wenatchee. New AppleSox head coach Ian Sanderson and staff will coach the North Division’s team and the 2019 West Coast League champion Corvallis Knights coaching staff led by Brooke Knight will coach the South Division. For more details, please click here.

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Some news from elsewhere in the West Coast League:

• The Bellingham Bells have named James “Boog” Leach as an assistant coach, joining head coach Adam Geaslen, pitching coach/recruiting coordinator Jim Clem and assistant coach Jake Whisler. Leach played collegiately at Linn-Benton Community College and Western Oregon University. Please click here for more details, from Our Sports Central.

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That’s all for today. See you soon!