With a dramatic flourish in the ninth inning, the North topped the South 3-2 in Wednesday night’s West Coast League All-Star Game. Gavyn Jones (Kelowna Falcons) was the North’s hero in the bottom of the ninth inning, rapping a two-out, two-strike, bases-loaded grounder that South shortstop Ty Yukumoto (Corvallis Knights) couldn’t quite corral in time to keep the tying and winning run from scoring, despite a close play at the plate.

Nobody scored until the top of the third, when Dylan Schlaegel (Cowlitz Black Bears) plated Kedren Kinzie (Springfield Drifters) with a sacrifice fly. The South threatened further, but Adison Mattix (Nanaimo NightOwls) escaped a bases-loaded jam with a big strikeout. In the fifth inning, Easton Amundsen (Bend Elks) drew a bases-loaded walk to add another run for the South, but again the North held the damage to just one run.

Which ultimately was all the South would get, as they finished the contest with only four hits. Meanwhile, the North halved the South lead in the seventh inning on Jacob Poturnak’s (Edmonton Riverhawks) RBI single. Which set up the dramatic ninth inning, highlighted by Gavyn Jones’s walk-off hit.

After the game, pitchers Nic Peterson (Bellingham Bells) and James DeCremer (Corvallis Knights) were selected by scouts as the All-Star Game’s top prospects. Davis Mauzy (Walla Walla Sweets) earned the first-ever Guts & Grit Award, and Nanaimo NightOwls slugger Wylie Waters, who reached base three times while playing the whole game at first base, garnered MVP honors. All four award winners were presented with customized Axe Bats.

The return of the WCL All-Star Game, played for the first time since 2019, aired across the globe on MLB Network, MLB.TV, MLB.com, and the MLB App.

Click here for the box score, or relive the whole game on MLB.com.

WCL All-Star Game History

2006 at Wenatchee – East 6, West 6
Attendance: 1,083
MVP: Zach Borba (UNLV) of the Aloha Knights and DJ Lidyard (Lower Columbia College) of the Wenatchee AppleSox
Top Prospect: Darin Holcomb (Gonzaga) of the Spokane RiverHawks
HR Derby Winner: Darin Holcomb (Gonzaga) of the Spokane RiverHawks

2007 at Bellingham – East 4, West 1
Attendance: 1,092
MVP: Ryan Davis (Vanderbilt) of the Wenatchee AppleSox and Brandon Kuykendall (Benedictine College) of the Kitsap BlueJackets
Top Prospect: Matt Way (Washington State) of the Corvallis Knights
HR Derby Winner: Dillon Baird (Arizona) of the Wenatchee AppleSox

2008 at Moses Lake – East 2, West 2
Attendance: 674
MVP: Stephen Hagen (Oregon State) of the Kelowna Falcons
Top Prospect: Taylor Starr (Oregon State) of the Corvallis Knights
HR Derby Winner: Nick Freitas (Southern Utah) of the Kelowna Falcons

2011 at Corvallis – East 4, West 2
Attendance: 2,157
MVP: Spencer O’Neil (Oregon) of the Cowlitz Black Bears
Top Prospect: Ben Wetzler (Oregon State) of the Corvallis Knights
HR Derby Winner: Sean Myrom (Concordia) of the Corvallis Knights

2012 at Walla Walla – West 3, East 2
Attendance: 2,006
MVP: Connor Hofmann (Oregon) of the Corvallis Knights
Top Prospect: Taylor Williams (Kent State) of the Cowlitz Black Bears and Hunter Virant (UCLA) of the Walla Walla Sweets
HR Derby Winner: Taylor Sparks (UC Irvine) of the Wenatchee AppleSox

2013 at Victoria – South 7, North 5
Attendance: 4,210
MVP: Kyle Knigge (Lewis-Clark State) of the Cowlitz Black Bears
Top Prospect: Cody Poteet (UCLA) of the Walla Walla Sweets
HR Derby Winner: Cody Hough (UC Riverside) of the Klamath Falls Gems

2014 at Klamath Falls – RAINED OUT
HR Derby Winner: Gabe Clark (Oregon Staet) of the Victoria HarbourCats

2015 at Bellingham – South 3, North 0
Attendance: 1,985
MVP: Jake Scudder (Kansas State) of the Kitsap BlueJackets
Top Prospect: Cadyn Grenier (Oregon State) of the Bend Elks
HR Derby Winner: Hunter Villanueva (Fresno Pacific) of the Kelowna Falcons

2016 at Cowlitz – South 4, North 0
Attendance: 1,823
MVP: Kyle Nobach (Oregon State) of the Corvallis Knights
Top Prospect: Cameron Bishop (UC Irvine) of the Corvallis Knights
HR Derby Winner: Jake Vieth (Gonzaga) of the Bellingham Bells

2017 at Yakima Valley – South 5, North 2
Attendance: 2,010
MVP: Devlin Granberg (Dallas Baptist) of the Cowlitz Black Bears
Top Prospect: Louis Crow (San Diego) of the Corvallis Knights
HR Derby Winner: Chase Illig (West Virginia) of the Bellingham Bells

2018 at Port Angeles – North 10, South 6
Attendance: 3,478
MVP: Kyle Schimpf (Southeastern Louisiana) of Port Angeles Lefties and Cesar Lopez (Cal Poly Pomona) of Walla Walla Sweets
Top Prospect: Zach Penrod (Northwest Nazarene) of the Walla Walla Sweets, Jeremy Yelland (Hawaii) of the Wenatchee AppleSox and Bradley Gonzales (Dallas Baptist) of the Bend Elks.
HR Derby Winner: Ron Brown (Houston) of the Port Angeles Lefties

2019 at Bend – North 14, South 1
Attendance: 2,284
MVP: Jack Machtolf (Gonzaga) of the Bellingham Bells
Top Prospect: Brooks Lee (Cal Poly) of the Corvallis Knights
HR Derby Winner: Matthew Christian (Campbell) of the Port Angeles Lefties

About the West Coast League: The West Coast League is western North America’s premier summer collegiate baseball league. Encompassing Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and Alberta, the WCL showcases pro prospects from major collegiate conferences around the nation. Every summer, the League features unparalleled fan and player experiences, with tremendous baseball weather and a mix of classic and modern ballparks, all backdropped by the sport’s most stunning scenery. MLB’s 2024 amateur draft opened with former Corvallis Knight Travis Bazzana selected as the overall No. 1 pick by the Cleveland Guardians, and this summer’s WCL All-Star Game aired live on MLB Network.