Friday, July 12, Walla Walla, Wash. – The Knights opened a weekend series at Walla Walla in impressive fashion with a 4-0 victory over the Sweets before a Borleske Stadium crowd of 702.
Corvallis (30-6 overall, 26-6 WCL, 4-1 second half) won for the 11th time in its last 12 starts. It also stretched its West Coast League road winning streak to 11 consecutive games; the Knights are 15-1 in league road games.
Pitchers Kaden Segel (Portland), Dom Tatone (Umpqua CC) and Mason Goodson (Oregon) combined for seven strikeouts and no walks in the 4-hit shutout. They faced only 31 batters, just four over the nine-inning minimum in a game that took only 2:13 to complete.
Segel (pictured, above) allowed three hits over 6.2 innings and improved to 4-0 on the season and 14-1 in four summers with the Knights. He struck out five, threw 54 strikes on 78 pitches and lowered his ERA to a sparkling 0.95.
Tatone got the final out in the seventh inning and added a perfect eighth, with one strikeout. Goodson appeared for the first time since June 27 and authored a 1-2-3 ninth, ending the game with his lone strikeout.
First baseman Quin Dufort (Portland) was 1-for-3 with three RBIs. Shortstop Blake Wilson (Washington) was 2-for-4 with a run and second baseman Ty Yukumoto (Pacific) was 2-for-4 with an RBI.
It was Yukumoto’s fifth multi-hit game in eight starts in July. He is hitting .467 (14-30) over that span, raising his average from .247 to .313.
Corvallis broke a scoreless tie in the fifth when Dufort tallied on Yukumoto’s RBI single. They doubled that advantage to 2-0 in the sixth on Dufort’s RBI groundout, which plated Thomas Ferroggiaro (Santa Clara).
They doubled it again, to 4-0, in the eighth inning on Dufort’s two-run, bases-loaded single. It scored Wilson and Kevin Takeuchi (USC), who had opened the inning with a single and a walk.
The series resumes at 6:35 p.m. July 12. Nebraska’s Grant Cleavinger (0-0, 3.85) is the scheduled starter for Corvallis, opposed by Connor Marshall (0-1, 6.00) of Walla Walla CC.
The July 13 finale starts at 6:05 p.m. The pitching matchup is Oregon State’s Laif Palmer (0-0, 1.28) for the Knights and Cam Sliz (1-2, 4.28) of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for the Sweets.
The Knights return home after the July 14 game to host the Springfield Drifters on July 15 and July 16. The WCL All-Star Game is set for July 17 at Bellingham, to be televised by the MLB Network.
Corvallis has clinched the first-half South Division championship and will advance to the West Coast League playoffs for the 17th consecutive season. The postseason starts on Aug. 10.