Wednesday, August 26, Corvallis, Ore. – The West Coast League announced its Top Prospect for the 2026 summer season and for the first time it was shared, and both were Corvallis Knights, Bryce Hill of Stanford and Ethan Porter of Oregon State.
Since the WCL established this honor in 2018, six Knights have been named Top Prospect. Minnesota Twins star Brooks Lee of Cal Poly was the league’s top prospect in 2019, All-Star Cleveland Guardians rookie Travis Bazzana of Oregon State in 2021, USC slugger Kevin Takeuchi in 2024, two-way phenom Brock Ketelsen of Stanford in 2025 and now incoming frosh right-handed pitcher Bryce Hill of the Cardinal and rising sophomore Ethan Porter of the Beavers.
Porter led the Knights offensively topping the club in several categories while playing a solid outfield and first base. Overall, he was tops in batting average (.339), doubles (17) and RBI (40). During the regular season, he stole 12 bases, led the team in OBP (.446) and sacrifice flies (6), tied for the team lead in home runs with 2 and posted a .983 fielding percentage. He also shined brightly in the West Coast League All-Star Game and playoffs. The rising sophomore was named the MVP of the WCL All-Star Game at Royal Athletic Park in Victoria, British Columbia where he blasted a two-run homer, delivered a game-winning RBI double and went 3-for-5 with a stolen base. In the post-season, Ethan went 7-for-19 with 2 doubles, a triple and 4 RBI. Last spring as a frosh, he emerged as an offensive force for the Beavers as he hit .293 with 8 doubles, 2 home runs and 9 RBI over 23 starts.
Hill got his first taste of college baseball in Corvallis as the hard-throwing righy from Connecticut will be an incoming freshman at Stanford this upcoming school year. He became one of the South Division champion Knights key starters and blossomed as the summer progressed. This past regular season, Bryce went 1-1 with a 3.25 ERA over 9 appearances, 7 starts and 27.2 innings pitched. Overall, he led Corvallis in strikeouts with 45 and recorded the highest fastball velocity ever measured on TrackMan by the Knights at 101.7 MPH.
Corvallis appeared in the WCL playoffs for a 19th consecutive season, went 38-25 overall (31-23 in WCL), captured the WCL South second-half title and won the South Division championship game, besting Ridgefield 7-2 at Goss Stadium, before closing out the summer with a tough WCL championship game loss at Wenatchee. The AppleSox posted a league best 39-13 record and captured the WCL crown by edging the Knights, 8-7.
To check out this season’s All-West Coast League teams, please visit www.westcoastleague.com.