The Corvallis Knights and Yakima Valley Pippins went the distance to decide who would represent the South in the 2017 West Coast League Championship Series; with the Knights prevailing 3-2 in a tightly contested decisive third game in Corvallis on Thursday, August 10.
Yakima Valley won game one at Yakima County Stadium in convincing fashion, 9-3. But the WCL defending champion Knights came back to take game two 8-4 at OSU’s Goss Stadium and then took game three at home in a thriller.
With the victory, Corvallis advances to its 9th WCLCS. They will meet up with the surging Victoria HarbourCats at Royal Athletic Park on Saturday, August 12 for game one of the WCLCS. First pitch is set for 6:35 pm. Games two and three are scheduled for Monday, August 14 and Tuesday, August 15 (if necessary) at Goss Stadium.
The Knights posted the league’s top record at 34-20. As a result, they own home field advantage in the WCLCS.
Corvallis edged Yakima Valley on Thursday thanks to clutch pitching by starter Connor Redmond of Cal Poly and lefty relievers Miles Glazier of UC Irvine and Kolby Somers of Oregon. Somers was brilliant, tossing two scoreless innings to earn the save. He faced only six batters, threw only 16 pitches – 14 for strikes – and struck out 2. Glazier earned the win.
Knights first baseman Dillan Shrum of Nevada-Reno went 3-for-3 with a RBI.
Victoria advanced to the WCLCS by sweeping Kelowna in the North Divisional Series. The Cats recorded the clincher on Wednesday, August 9th by beating the Falcons at Elks Stadium 11-5. The HarbourCats are appearing in the WCLCS for the first time.
Photo Credits- Paul Rentz.
ABOUT THE WEST COAST LEAGUE
The West Coast League is the premier summer collegiate baseball league west of the Mississippi. The 13-year-old, 11-team, professionally operated wood-bat league located in the beautiful Pacific Northwest features pro prospects from major conferences across the nation and an unparalleled history out west of great fan and player experiences in addition to the best summer weather in North America. 82 players with WCL experience were selected in the MLB 2017 June draft. In 2016, more than 230 WCL alums appeared in affiliated professional baseball including 28 in the major leagues, such as 2015 home-run leader Chris Davis (Baltimore), 2015 NL Rookie of the Year runner-up Matt Duffy (Tampa Bay) and rising star pitchers Matt Andriese (Tampa Bay), Matt Boyd (Detroit) and James Paxton (Seattle); and outfielder Mitch Haniger (Arizona, now Seattle). Overall member attendance was 379,611 in 2016.
News
