Sunday, July 6, Corvallis, Ore. – The Knights bested Bend 5-2 on a hot day at Goss Stadium to complete a convincing sweep of the South Division series.
Corvallis (23-10 all, 20-10 WCL, 3-0 second half) outscored the Elks 20-5 in stretching their winning streak to eight games in WCL action and 10 games overall. Their last loss was at Yakima Valley back on June 25.
Two-way player Trey Swygart (Portland) made an outstanding pitching debut, shutting the Elks down over the final 1.2 innings for the save. He ended a two-on, one-out threat in the eighth with a strikeout and a force play, and then finished with a scoreless ninth.
Swygart joined the team on July 3 and was a hitter in his first two appearances, doubling in each game and driving in three runs.
Relievers Swygart, Dom Tatone (Western Oregon), Val Froling (UCSB), Parker Warner (Stanford) and Chance Wallace (Pacific) blanked the Elks on two hits over the final 4.2 innings. Froling got the decision.
Bend led 2-0 after the first inning but the Knights responded with five unanswered runs from the third through the seventh. Josh Proctor (Oregon State) got the comeback started by tripling and scoring on a balk in the third.
A solo homer by Antonio Castro (Cal Poly) tied the game in the fourth. The Knights then surged ahead with two runs in the sixth on a bases-loaded fielder’s choice and a throwing error by the shortstop.
An RBI single by Ian Fernandez (UCSB, pictured above) in the seventh made it 5-2. Fernandez was 2-for-3 with a double and a run and was the Washington Park Advisors Player of the Game.
Castro hit for a combined cycle in the final two games of the series. He was 3-for-4 on July 5 with two RBIs and a single, double and triple.
The Knights are idle on July 7. They play at South Division foe Ridgefield on July 8-10, and at Walla Walla on July 11-13. Corvallis swept a three-game series from Ridgefield at Goss Stadium on June 20-22; all the wins were by one run and two were walk-offs.
Their next home game is a July 15 non-conference matchup with the Corvallis Gerding Construction American Legion team. The WCL All-Star Game at Bellingham follows on July 16.