Knights hold on, win wild series opener 9-7

Friday, July 11, Walla Walla, Wash. – The Knights built a big lead and then held on for a 9-7 victory over Walla Walla in the South Division series opener before 1,354 fans at Borleske Stadium.

The Knights (26-11 all, 23-11 WCL, 6-1 second half) won for the 11^th time in their last 12 West Coast League games. They moved five games in front of the Sweets (18-16) for second place in the overall South Division standings.

Starter J’Shawn Unger (Iowa Western CC, pictured above) allowed two hits over five shutout innings and improved to 4-0. He struck out two; Unger has an 0.82 ERA in his last two starts, both wins, with only three hits and one run allowed in 11 innings.

Unger is 3-0 in his last five starts. The Knights blew a 6-1 lead in the eighth inning of one of the no-decisions, costing him another victory.

Corvallis scored twice in the first on an error and a sacrifice fly by Antonio Castro (Cal Poly). RBI triples by Blake Wilson (Washington) and Thomas Ferroggiaro (Santa Clara) doubled the lead to 4-0 in the second inning.

Ian Fernandez (UCSB) led off the fourth with his second homer of the summer, making it 5-0 and tying him with four teammates for the club lead. A Braeden Mondeau (Hawaii-Hilo) sacrifice fly upped the lead to 6-0 in the fifth.

Castro, Cole Katayama-Stall (Portland) and Maverek Russell (UCLA) added RBIs in the seventh, stretching the margin to 9-0.

Corvallis needed every run, as the bullpen imploded in the home seventh and allowed seven runs. Walla Walla had five hits and two walks with two outs to score all seven runs before the rally finally ended.

Incoming Oregon State freshman Tyler Bellerose put out the fire, however, with two innings of scoreless relief for the save. The Sweets brought the tying run to the plate with two outs in the last of the ninth, but Bellerose ended the game by inducing a groundout to shortstop.

Wilson doubled and triples and was 3-for-5 with two runs, and an RBI. Ferroggiaro was 2-for-3 with a triple, a run and an RBI and Castro was 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Corvallis finished with seven extra-base hits.

Game 2 of the series is set for 6:35 p.m. July 12. Trey Newmann of Portland (2-0, 6.30) is the probable starter for the Knights, opposed by Ben Reimers of Stanford (1-0, 2.07) for the Sweets.

The series and road trip concludes at 6:05 p.m. July 13. Zach Johnson of Linfield (1-1, 4.09) goes for the Knights vs. Peysen Sweeny of Washington (0-0, 4.50) for the Sweets.

The Knights next home game is the July 15 non-conference matchup with the Corvallis Gerding Construction American Legion team.

The WCL All-Star Game at Bellingham follows on July 16. Infielder Mason Riske (USC), pitcher J’Shawn Unger (Iowa Western CC), center fielder Brock Ketelsen (Stanford) and catcher Xavier Rios (CSUN) will represent the Knights on the South Division squad.

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