Thursday, July 11, Corvallis, Ore. – Hustyn Wheeler didn’t have a problem.
An RBI single by the incoming Oregon State freshman outfielder walked off Yakima Valley, giving the Knights a 5-4, 9-inning victory in the second game and a sweep of their West Coast League doubleheader.
Corvallis (29-6 overall, 25-6 WCL, 3-1 second half) won the opener 3-0. The Knights also claimed the series 2-1 and are 10-0 in WCL series this summer.
Right fielder Kasen Khansarinia (UCLA) saved the game by throwing out the potential run at home to end the top of the eighth. He then worked a walk leading off the decisive ninth and was sacrificed to second by Peyton Miller (Gonzaga).
After a strikeout, Wheeler golfed a 3-1 pitch into left field. His opposite-field knock easily scored Khansarinia and Hustyn was mobbed by celebrating teammates after flinging off his batting helmet out near second base.
Wheeler was 2-for-2 with an RBI and reached base safely in all five plate appearances. Washington Park Advisors Player of the Game Brandon Cabrera (Lewis-Clark State) was 1-for-2 with a run, an RBI and two steals.
Both games were scheduled for seven innings. Corvallis was poised for an uneventful sweep before Yakima Valley scored three times in the sixth inning to take a 4-3 lead.
Cabrera’s RBI single in the home half tied the score. But the Knights lost a chance to go ahead and perhaps win in seven innings when Wheeler forgot to tag up at third on a fly out to medium-deep center field with one out.
Corvallis didn’t score and the game continued. Khansarinia’s outstanding throw and a nice tag by catcher Luke Lavin (Stanford) ended the eighth and kept the Knights alive.
Reliever Colter McAnelly (Utah) went 3.1 scoreless innings to earn the pitching victory. He had one walk and one strikeout.
It was the second extra-inning game of the hard-fought series. Yakima Valley prevailed 5-4 in 11 innings on July 10 in a game played at Dick McClain Field at Linn-Benton Community College.
Payton Riske (Utah, pictured above) and Lucas Casey (CSUN) combined on a four-hit shutout in the opener, played in a brisk 1:32. Riske allowed three hits over five innings, struck out six, walked none and earned Washington Park Advisors Player of the Game honors.
Casey came on in the sixth inning and retired the first four hitters. A one-out single and two-out walk brought the tying run to the plate in the seventh, but he closed the game out with a harmless fly ball to center to garner his first save.
Corvallis scored three times in the first. With two outs and the bases loaded, Yakima Valley’s right fielder dropped a fly ball off the bat of Tyler Howard and two runs scored.
A third runner, who had stopped at third base, headed home when the right fielder compounded the mistake by making an errant throw to second base in an attempt to gun down Howard.
Ty Yukumoto (Pacific) had two singles for his third consecutive multi-hit game. He has four multi-hit games in his last five starts and is batting .556 (10-18) over that span. He was hitting .246 on July 1, but has raised his average 59 points to .305 with a torrid month at the plate.
The Knights open a weekend series at Walla Walla on July 12. Kaden Segel (3-0, 1.24) of Portland will start the opener; the pitching matchups for the other games have not been announced.
Their next home game is July 15 vs. Springfield.
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.