Sunday, Aug. 2, Corvallis, Ore. – The Knights concluded the home portion of their West Coast League schedule by thumping Yakima Valley 14-2 on Fan Appreciation Day at Goss Stadium.
The victory gave the Knights (33-22, 29-22 WCL, 16-8 second half) a sweep of the South Division series. They remained in first place in the second-half South Division title race and clinched a postseason spot for the 19th consecutive season.
The Knights finished the summer with a 19-12 overall home mark and a 15-12 WCL home record. However, they won 7 of their final 9 home league games, and are now 12-3 in their last 15 games, with four series wins in a row.
Newcomer Josh Myers (Alan Hancock, pictured above) had his first hits as a Knight since joining the team on July 29 and nabbed Washington Park Advisors Player of the Game plaudits. He was 3-for-4 with a double, two RBIs and a run scored.
Corvallis led 3-1 and then put the game out of reach as the first eight Knights to bat in the fourth inning all scored. Maverek Russell (UCSB) and Dakota Chun (Portland) had two-run singles by scoring eight times in the fourth inning.
Every Knight in the starting lineup scored at least once. Chun and Ethan Porter (Oregon State) had three RBIs.
Blake Sebastian (Johnson County CC) started and allowed one run in 3.1 innings in his final appearance. He finished 3-0, 6.23 in 15 games, with 30 strikeouts in 26 innings.
Connor Markham (Oregon) was the winner. He relieved Sebatian with one out and the base loaded in the fourth, got a strikeout and a groundout to end the inning with no inherited runners scoring, and then added a 1-2-3 fifth inning.
Four subsequent relievers did not allow a hit over the final four innings, and the Pippins finished with one.
The Knights outscored Yakima Valley 40-9 in the series. They hit double figures for the seventh time in their last 10 games, a span in which they’ve scored 122 runs.
Corvallis concludes the regular season at Ridgefield on Aug. 3-5. The postseason playoffs, involving the top four teams from the North and South divisions, begin on Aug. 7 with the best-of-3 divisional round.
The location of Corvallis’s first playoff game hasn’t been determined.
The crowd of 1,395 raised the season attendance to 48,470 in 32 dates. That’s an average of 1,515 per opening.