August 13, 2025 – Nothing came easy for anyone Tuesday night, but Thursday night’s West Coast League championship game is now locked in, with the perennially contending Bellingham Bells visiting last year’s champions, the Portland Pickles.

Once again, this year’s South finalists were the Pickles and Corvallis Knights, but this year the Pickles – who broke the Knights’ old league record with 43 regular-season victories – hosted the divisional final.

The first six innings at Walker Stadium were tense and close, but the Knights took a first-inning lead and kept it until the bottom of the sixth, when the Pickles scored twice for a 6-5 edge. With one out in the top of the eighth, closer Carter Speights (UC Davis) entered with one Knight aboard. Uncharacteristically, Speights then walked the next two Knights to load the bases … before striking out the next two to escape the jam.

Speights had more work to do in the ninth, though. After a quick first out, there was a tremendous intersection of the West Coast League’s two most visible players. At the plate, with one out and nobody aboard, the WCL’s top-rated prospect: Brock Ketelsen (Stanford). At first base, the League’s new single-season home-run and RBI champion: Josh Schleichardt (Oregon).

While three home runs had previously been hit – including a big one from Schleichardt back in the sixth – perhaps nobody hit a ball harder all evening than the screaming line drive Ketelsen hit toward the right-field corner … which Schleichardt somehow snagged for the second out.

But Speights gave up a walk and a base hit, before escaping yet again with another strikeout;  in his 13 appearances this summer, he’s still not given up a single run, and this was easily his biggest save yet.

A year ago when the Pickles topped Wenatchee for the WCL championship, hundreds of fans poured onto the field to celebrate with team personnel. There was no storming this time, perhaps because the fans knew there’s still the bigger prize: a second straight championship trophy, on the line Thursday night in Portland.

But for that, the Pickles will have to get through the Bellingham Bells, who survived the long road trip to Edmonton, a massive and raucous crowd at RE/MAX Field, and a long rain (and lightning!) delay to edge the Riverhawks 5-2 for the North championship.

Following that long delay after the seventh, the Bells scored an insurance run in the eighth, and closer Colt Peterson (Stanford) closed out the Riverhawks in the ninth inning for the 5-2 win, sending Bellingham to its third WCL championship game in the last nine seasons.

A trip to the championship game is nothing new for Bells Head Coach Ed Knaggs, who’s in his first year with Bellingham but previously guided the Wenatchee AppleSox to five titles and served as an assistant coach with the Knights during four of their championship seasons. In spring 2024, coach Knaggs made headlines around the Pacific Northwest with his 419-mile Opening Day Run, in the spirit of mental health awareness.

With Portland’s Mark Magdaleno recently announcing that he’ll be stepping down as Pickles Head Coach after this season, Thursday night might well be our last chance to see these two WCL legends on the field together.

Not to mention some terrific collegiate summer baseball! Coach Magdaleno and the Pickles are aiming for their second straight championship; the Bells are going for their second all-time, having topped the Knights for the title back in 2014.

First pitch is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. Follow live stats on the WCL scoreboard page, and you can watch all the action on WCL Live, via the internet and your iOS or Android app.

About the West Coast League: The West Coast League is western North America’s premier summer collegiate baseball league. With teams ranging throughout Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Alberta, the WCL offers top collegiate players the chance to compete at a high level, develop their skills, and showcase their talents in front of thousands of fans, MLB scouts, and national media. The WCL’s 20th Anniversary Season concludes with the WCL Championship Game on August 14.