Schedule finalized, season tickets on sale

We are still a long ways from Opening Day 2012.

But with the release of the official 2012 schedule and the news that 2012 season tickets are now on sale, that June 1 game at Walla Walla, and our June 5 home opener against Klamath Falls, seem all the closer.

For those of you wondering, the official countdown to opening day is 214; it's 214 more days until we hit 0 on June 1. And there's an extra day because 2012 is a Leap Year, so the wait is a tad bit longer than in 2011.

We don't get serious about that until were at about 150 or so. But it never hurts to know the exact number, even in October.

Here are our home games:

JUNE: 5-6, Klamath Falls. 13-15, Walla Walla. 18, Bend. 22, WCL Portland. 24, WCL Portland. 26-28, Bellingham. 29-30, Kitsap.

JULY: 1-2, Kitsap. 9-11, Wenatchee. 12, Albany American Legion. 15, Bend. 18-19, Bend. 20-21, Kelowna. 25-26, Klamath Falls. 28, WCL Portland.

AUGUST: 2-4, Cowlitz.

The All-Star Game is July 24 at Walla Walla. The playoff dates haven't been finalized, but are tentatively set for Aug. 10-13 for the divisional round and Aug. 15-18 for the WCL Championship Series, which will start in the West this summer.

A complete promotional schedule will be released in due time. We do know, though, that our annual holiday Fireworks Night has been moved up a day to July 2 instead of the customary July 3 because of a scheduling glitch.

We just sold our first 2012 season-ticket package, so hurry on down!

Here's the WCL's news release on the 2012 schedule.

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Knights' signee Alex Silver went 1-for-4 as the DH on Sunday for Texas in a 13-6 win over Texas State that concluded the Longhorns' fall drills.

Another 2012 signee, pitcher Justin Peters, threw an inning of one-hit, scoreless relief, with one strikeout.

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Some news from around the WCL:

WENATCHEE: Broadcaster Chris King, the play-by-play voice of the AppleSox the past two seasons, is leaving to become the Boise State women's basketball play-by-play broadcaster. He'll seek a job in affiliated baseball for 2012.

Season tickets go on sale Monday

Season tickets for the 2012 Corvallis Knights baseball team will go on sale Monday at our team's office in the Madison Plaza building downtown Corvallis or online at our website.

The Knights are the defending West Coast League champions. A 59-game schedule is planned, starting June 1 at Walla Walla. The 31-game home schedule begins on June 6 against the Klamath Falls Gems. A finalized schedule will be released shortly.

A variety of packages are available.

* Diamond Club reserved-seat season tickets (sections C, D, E) are $175.

* The Block (section A) season tickets are $150.

* General admission season tickets are $115.

* Ten-game punch cards are $40.

Membership in the Diamond Club also includes 10% off all Knights' merchandise; an exclusive catered meet and greet with the team; updated stat sheets before every home game; a special team gift, and other offers throughout the season.

For more information, call 541-752-5656 or visit www.corvallisknights.com.

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The University of Delaware concluded its annual Blue-Gray fall series on Wednesday and former Knights pitcher Eric Young (2009-11) was the winning pitcher in an 8-1 Gray victory that gave them a sweep of the three-game set.

Young allowed six hits and one run over six innings, with three strikeouts and no walks. He's a senior for the Blue Hens and was their Friday night starter in 2011.

Way to go, EY!

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Some news from around the WCL:

WALLA WALLA: The Sweets have signed returnees Chance Kopacz and Brett Jacobs for the 2012 season. Both are outfielders who helped the Sweets reach the WCL Championship Series in only their second year in the league.

The Knights go viral

Maybe you've already seen it, but The Blog makes his acting debut this week in the Knights season-ticket video. It's some high-quality stuff.

An outtakes video can also be found by clicking the YouTube icon on the Knights home page. It was great fun to film. But obviously I'm not quitting my day job.

And season tickets go on sale Monday. We have some great offers for the 2012 season so act quickly!

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The Knights have signed freshmen right-handed pitcher Bryan Granger of Cal Poly for the 2012 season.

The 6-foot-2, 170-pound Granger played at San Benito High in Hollister, Calif. He was 5-1 with a 2.72 ERA and 64 strikeouts in 64.1 innings as a senior after going 6-2, 1.52 as a junior.

Here's a story on his signing with Cal Poly from his hometown newpaper, The Pinnacle of Hollister.

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Three former Knights will be volunteer graduate assistant coaches at their alma maters this season now that their professional careers have ended.

* Former Oregon State star Andy Jenkins, who played for the old Aloha Knights before the formation of the WCL, is now working with the Beavers while completing his degree work.

He played in the Florida and Texas organizations after leaving OSU after the 2005 season, and ultimately reached triple-A.

* Former San Diego State pitcher Jon Berger, a star on our 2008 WCL championship team, is back with the Aztecs after being released by the San Diego Padres. He briefly reached triple-A after starting his pro career in 2009.

* And outfielder Wally Crancer, the MVP of our first WCL team (2005), is now at Georgia Tech, where he played for two years after starting at Riverside CC. He played for several seasons in the Baltimore organization after leaving Georgia Tech.

Victoria in 2013? It's possible

We wrote several weeks ago about possible West Coast League expansion for 2013 and it appears that could very well become a reality.

According to this story in today's Victoria Times Colonist newspaper, an expansion franchise could begin playing there in 2013, at Royal Athletic Park near downtown Victoria, British Columbia.

Victoria has a history of minor- and independent-league baseball, so it would probably be a good addition to the league. A 10th team would help make scheduling easier, as well.

Better get my passport.

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Former Knights pitcher Eric Young (2009-11) got to bat for the University of Delaware on Tuesday in Game 2 of the team's annual fall Blue-Gray World Series. He singled and then scored the winning run.

Here are the details of the Gray team's 8-6 victory, which clinched the best-of-3 series, from the Delaware website.

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First baseman Alex Silver of the University of Texas, a 2012 signee, was 0-for-1 with a sacrifice on Sunday in a 3-2 loss to Sam Houston State in a fall exhibition game at Austin.

Teammates and fellow 2012 Knights Justin Peters and Trevor Teykl did not pitch.

Texas hosts Texas State on Sunday in its next fall game.

Knights pitchers set WCL record

Excellent pitching has always been a hallmark of the Corvallis Knights, and 2011 was no different.

Knights' pitchers struck out a WCL-record 401 opponents in 2011. That was one of 30 team or individual league records established in 2011, the West Coast League's seventh - and most successful - season.

Max Beatty and Kyle Hart had 44 apiece to lead the team. Mark Trentacosta added 35, Jace Fry had 33, Chris Johnson had 32 and Scott Schultz added 29.

And we should have a good head start on another great staff in 2012. Beatty, Hart, Trentacosta and Johnson, and perhaps another standout from our 2011 staff, are expected to return.

Here's a link to the story on the WCL homepage.

And speaking of Trentacosta, he was plenty scary to WCL hitters last year. But he was even scarier at UC Irvine's "Spooktacular" event, as proven by this photo on the Anteaters' baseball home page.

(Sorry Mark.)

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The Knights have signed left-handed pitcher Greg Mahle, a freshman at UC Santa Barbara who starred at Westminster (Calif.) High School in 2011.

The 6-2, 220-pound Mahle was 5-2 with a 0.70 ERA and 63 strikeouts in 50 innings as a senior. He is 18 years old but will turn 19 before joinig the Knights.

His pitching coach at UCSB is Jason Hawkins, the Knights' pitching coach in our 2008 WCL championship season. UCSB's head coach is former Oregon State star/Knights coach Andrew Checketts.

And here's a link to today's Corvallis Gazette-Times story announcing the signing of Nate Esposito of Oregon State and Zach Manley of Linfield.

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Former Knights' first baseman D.J. Johnson (2009) of Mt. Hood/Western Oregon has signed a three-year minor-league contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

D.J. pitched for the Missoula Osprey in the Pioneer League in 2011 and had a great season (1-0, 2.08, 10 saves) as their closer.

He originally signed with the Tampa Bay Rays but was released after a good rookie season with the Gulf Coast League Rays in 2010 (0-0, 2.05, two saves); fortunately he caught on with Arizona.

Knights sign OSU C/INF Esposito

The daily Knights blog is back, after a long weekend break for a little R & R on the East Coast with some friends from college. A good time was had by all; this West Coaster discovered Yuengling. Enough said.

And we've got some news about two new players for 2012 (it's already been on our transactions page, but who knows how many of you get that deep into the menu from the home page).

The Knights have signed Oregon State freshman catcher Nate Esposito and Linfield junior pitcher Zach Manley , coach Brooke Knight has announced.

Esposito is a 5-foot-11, 180-pounder from Granite Bay High in Granite Bay, Calif., who was selected by Oakland in the 46th round of the 2011 MLB draft. He was a Sierra Foothill League first-team all-star and played with the Milwaukee Brewers California Area Code team.

Here's a profile of Esposito from OSUbeavers.com.

Manley is a 6-foot, 215-pound righthander from Coberg who was a two-time all-league selection at Sheldon High in Eugene. He was an all-star at Shasta (Calif.) Community College as a freshman in 2010 and then was 5-0 with a 2.30 ERA for Linfield as a sophomore in 2011.

Welcome aboard!

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Pitcher Jacve Fry, a 2011 Knight, and 2012 Knights' signees Nate Esposito, Michael McCall and Mitchell Tripp are part of an Oregon State recruiting class that is ranked No. 7 nationally by Baseball America magazine.

Signees Cole Wiper and Sam Johnson, both right-handed pitchers, are part of an Oregon recruiting class that's ranked No. 9 nationally by the same organization.

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Some news from around the West Coast League:

WALLA WALLA: The Sweets, who lost 2-0 to the Knights in the WCL Championship Series, have announced their first signings for the 2012 season, according to the Walla Walla Union Bulletin.

Here's how the signing was announced on the Sweets' website.

Knights add online ticketing option for 2012

We told you last week that we had some exciting news on the way on Tuesday, and today we deliver as promised.

Affordable family fun will be just a click away in 2012.

We are teaming up with Glitnir Ticketing of Hicksville, New York, to provide an online ticketing option for next year's games.

Online customers will be able to choose and buy seats of their choice, in real time, to any game.

"Our fans have expressed a desire for online ticketing for some time," Jaimie Van Vleet, the Knights' Director of Tickets, said Tuesday. "We are pleased to make online ticketing a convenient, affordable way for our fans to attend a Knights game."

Glitnir Ticketing was the first ticketing system to feature a fully integrated box office and Internet ticketing solution so online customers can select their own seats.

"We are very excited to be working with the Corvallis Knights as we look to help them improve the online fan experience when buying tickets," said Gordon Krstacic, CEO of Glitnir Ticketing.

Founded in 2003, Glitnir Ticketing is a vendor for many affiliated, independent and summer collegiate baseball teams throughout the country. It also is the ticket provider for soccer clubs, hockey teams, theaters, and multi-purpose venues throughout the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom.

The defending WCL champions, the Knights begin their sixth season in Corvallis next June. Information detailing season-ticket packages and the 2012 schedule should be available by the end of the month.

Season tickets will go on sale on Monday, Oct. 31, 2011. Our 2012 schedule will be released shortly; our projected season opener is June 3 and our projected home opener is June 5.

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The Knights have signed Oregon State right-handed pitcher Mitchell Tripp of Meridian High School in Bellevue, Wash.

The 6-foot-2, 190-pound freshman was all-conference in his junior and sophomore seasons.Stats for his senior season were not available.

He was 4-2 with a 2.32 ERA his junior season and went 4-1 with 20 strikeouts in 20 innings as a sophomore. He was also a position player and hit above .300 throughout high school.

Tripp played basketball and football at Meridian and was all-state in football and lettered three times in both sports.

He is the second player from OSU to sign for 2011; pitcher Michael McCall signed earlier this month.

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Some news from around the WCL:

COWLITZ: The Black Bears have named Aaron Butler as a new assistant coach under new head coach Tim Matz. Butler is entering his 13th season at Santa Ana College (Santa Ana, Calif.) as an assistant coach. Matz is the head coach at Santa Ana.

Butler will succeed former Knight (2007-09) Josh Hogan, who was hired as Klamath Falls' new head coach in the offseason. Here are all the details from Our Sports Central.

KITSAP: The Kitsap BlueJackets announced the signing of 25 players for the 2012 season. Among the familiar names on the roster are RHP Stuart Fewel of Lower Columbia College, a one-time Oregon State redshirt.

Knights sign RHP Jorge Perez

Our roster continues to get stronger.

The Knights have signed pitcher Jorge Perez of Grand Canyon University, general manager/skipper Brooke Knight announced. GCU is a Division II school in Phoenix that plays in the Pacific West Conference.

Perez is a 6-foot-2, 205-pound freshman right-hander from Downey, Calif. He graduated from La Jolla Community High School in Avondale, Ariz., in 2011 and was 3-2 with a 4.67 ERA and one save in 21 innings over seven games, with 32 strikeouts and nine walks as a senior.

He also hit .395 as an infielder, with eight homers and 42 RBIs in 28 games.

Former Knights' outfielder Braden Wells, a key member of our 2007 West Division championship/WCL runner-up club, is an assistant coach at GCU.

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Season tickets for the 2012 campaign, our sixth in Corvallis, will go on sale on Halloween, October 31. We've got some special offers and new benefits for our current and prospective season-ticket holders; we'll have more information shortly, so stay tuned!

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Two 2012 Knights played key roles for the University of Texas on Sunday in a 7-2 exhibition win over Houston, at Austin. The teams played 14 innings under a predetermined agreement.

Designated hitter/first baseman Alex Silver (34 in the photo gallery) was 1-for-3 and scored twice. Pitcher Justin Peters allowed no hits in a scoreless inning of relief, with one strikeout.

The other Knight/Longhorn, pitcher Trevor Teykl, did not play. Texas hosts Texas-Arlington on Saturday in its next fall game.

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Former Knights pitcher Marc Rzepczynski (2006) of the St. Louis Cardinals was the winning pitcher against Milwaukee in Game 6 of the NLCS on Sunday night and will play against Texas in the World Series.

The Series starts Wednesday night in St. Louis. "Zep" was 2-6 with a 3.34 ERA in 71 games this year, (43 Toronto, 28 St. Louis), with 61 strikeouts in 62 innings.

Nice outcome for Rzepczynski, who began the season with Toronto but was traded to the Cardinals on July 27 to help bolster their bullpen. If he was with the Blue Jays,he'd be watching the playoffs. Instead, he's in the World Series.

A postgame interview from MLB.com can be found here.

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Some news from around the WCL:

BEND: Pitcher Cam Christian of Seattle University, a member of the 2011 Bend Elks, was killed on Sunday in an automobile accident in Idaho.

Here are the details from the Seattle U. website. Christian was briefly on our roster last winter but was released before the 2011 season. He was a teammate of 2011 Knights Trent Oleszczuk and Nate Roberts.

Our condolences to his family and friends and to the Seattle U. program.

Happy Friday everyone!

It's Friday down at the WWHQ and we're gettin' ready for the weekend.

It's not a workday without an update of the Knights' blog, however, and we've got a few items of interest relating to the Knights and from around the West Coast League.

So here goes:

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Former Knights' infielder Brent Morel (2006-07), now the starting third baseman for the Chicago White Sox, tells MLB.com that the team's hiring Robin Ventura as its new manager could be a boost to his career.

In this story from ESPNChicago, Morel said he expects to learn as much as he can from the ex-White Sox third baseman, who Morel first met during his playing days at Cal Poly.

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Cardinals' reliver/ex-Knight Mark Rzepczynski (2006) did not pitch in a 4-2 loss to the Brewers in Game 4 of the NLCS on Thursday night.

He is 0-0 with a 0.00 ERA in two appearances over three innings in the NLCS. For the playoffs, he's 0-0, 9.00 in three innings over six appearances, as he was roughed up in one of his three games in the NLDS against Philadelphia.

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Some news from around the WCL:

KLAMATH FALLS: The Gems have hired former Dodgers/White Sox organizational staffer Dan Heeman as their new assistant general manager.

His parents, Chuck and Mayra, also work for the club as the general manager and the sales/ticket manager, respectively.

Big Knights news coming up soon!

We can't spill the beans just yet.

But we'll have some news to report on Tuesday that should please you fans out there, and make it more convenient to purchase tickets for our 2012 games.

So, although you might be able to put 2 and 2 together, our lips are sealed until Tuesday. Stay tuned!

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The 2012 West Coast League schedule is still going through final revisions. It should be available shortly, and when it is we'll post it ASAP.

League play is scheduled for start on June 1; our first game is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, June 3, and our home opener is set (right now) for Wednesday, June 6.

The regular season closes on Aug. 9, with the best-of-3 divisional and championship playoffs to follow. No games will be played on July 23 and the All-Star Game is set for July 24 at Walla Walla.

The same nine teams will return in 2012 and the divisional lineup is unchanged as well: Wenatchee, Walla Walla, Kelowna and Bellingham in the East Division and Corvallis, Bend, Klamath Falls, Kitsap and Cowlitz in the West Division.

And for those of you counting, it's 234 more days until our June 3 opener. Let the countdown begin!

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Here's a link to today's Corvallis Gazette-Times story on the return of WCL all-league pitchers Chris Johnson of Portland and Max Beatty of Pacific Lutheran.

Now, we realize some things might change before June 3, our projected opening night (the season starts June 1, but we're not scheduled to play then). But with Johnson, Beatty, returnee Kyle Hart and perhaps one other returning all-star as probable starters and all-league closer Mark Trentacosta in the bullpen, our pitching staff could be pretty darn salty.

Excellent pitching has been a Knights' hallmark ever since current Atlanta Braves' ace Tommy Hanson and current Houston Astros starter Bud Norris anchored the staff of the 2005 Aloha Knights in the first year of the WCL. That shouldn't change in 2012.