Come to The Vue on Thursday for the new Brand Unveiling Party!

Happy Wednesday, everyone.

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Don't forget, all Knights fans are invited to the "Knights Refreshed Brand Unveiling" party, set for 5:30 p.m. Thursday at The Vue, 517 SW 2nd Street in downtown Corvallis. It's on the sixth floor of the Elements Building.

The unveiling will be at 6:15 p.m. Stop by to join Mack the Knights, Lil' K, and our front office staff for the introduction of our new look. Light refreshments will be served.

So come on down, and bring a friend.

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The Yakima Valley Pippins have added infielder Jacob Manson of Yakima Valley College and utility Layne Croney of Puget Sound to their 2015 roster. Croney is from Corvallis and played at Crescent Valley High School. He is hitting .545 with a home run and seven RBIs in his first three games of the season.

For more on that story, from the Our Sports Central website, please click here.

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The WCL-champion Bellingham Bells have added Arizona State pitchers Grant Schneider and Reagan Todd for the 2015 season. For more on that story, from the Our Sports Central website, please click here.

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Also, the Bells have hired Kyle Crooks of William Patterson College in New Jersey as their play-by-play voice for the 2015 season. For more details, please click here and read all about it from the Ballpark Business website.

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That is all for today. Have a great day and we will see you on Friday.

Bite beaten in ABL Championship Series

Happy Monday, everyone.

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Knights' coach Brooke Knight was denied his third Australian Baseball League title on Sunday when the Perth Heat defeated the Bite 12-5 in the decisive game of the ABL's best-of-3 Championship Series.

Adelaide won Friday's opener 3-2. Perth forced a rubber match with a 5-3, 10-inning win on Saturday, and prevailed decisively on Sunday to claim the Claxton Shield trophy.

Knight coached Perth to championships in 2012 and 2013 before retiring (temporarily, as it turns out) from the ABL. Former Knights' pitcher Colin Feldtman (2013) was active for Adelaide and alum Liam Baron (2008-09) was on the Perth squad but neither pitched in the final series.

Adelaide won the regular-season title and was the top seed for the playoffs. Congrats to Brooke on a great season, even if they didn't win the title.

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Don't forget, all Knights fans are invited to the "Knights Refreshed Brand Unveiling" party, set for 5:30 p.m. Thursday at The Vue, 517 SW 2nd Street in downtown Corvallis. It's on the sixth floor of the Elements Building.

The unveiling will be at 6:15 p.m. Stop by to join Mack the Knights, Lil' K, and the Knights' front office staff for the introduction of our new look. Light refreshments will be served.

So come on down, and bring a friend.

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Perhaps you've already seen it on our website, but if not, check out this story on alum Andrew Susac (2009) and his season with the World Champion San Francisco Giants.

Susac and alum Matt Duffy (2010) both earned rings with the Giants. Please click here to read about Duffy's summer in the majors.

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The college baseball season started this past weekend and some alums had nice starts.

* For Concordia, catcher Nate Esposito (2012) was 5-for-10 with four RBIs in a tournament at Nampa, Idaho. Pitcher Jason Snodgrass (2014) earned a win, had seven strikeouts and gave up three runs in seven innings in his start.

* For Pacific Lutheran, pitcher Chris Bishop (2012-14) gave up four runs and had four strikeouts in 4.1 innings of a no-decision start and pitcher Jake Otness (2013-14) got a save in a tournament at Tucson. Complete results were not available.

* For George Fox, Clay Mott (2015) hit .264 (4-15) with an RBI; Tyler Hamilton (2015) hit .125 (1-8) with an RBI and AJ Valencia (2015) hit .286 (2-7) with an RBI in a tournament in Texas. Sean Eberhardt (2013-14) allowed one run in three innings and had three strikeouts in two relief appearances.

* Corban's Hayden Calvert 2015) is hitting .333 (4-12) with a homer and four RBIs so far. Alum Marc Gallegos (2012, 2014) is red-hot, as he's 10-for-13 (.769) with seven RBIs in four games.

Linfield was also in action but stats are not updated yet.

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That is all for today. Stay dry, have a great day and we will see you on Wednesday.

Adelaide, Knight one win away from ABL title

Happy Friday, everyone.

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It's a big weekend in Corvallis, with more than 9,000 fans expected at Gill Coliseum for the Beavers-Washington men's basketball game on Sunday. And it's a big weekend in Adelaide, Australia, as well.

Coach Brooke Knight and the Adelaide Bite lead the Perth Heat 1-0 in the Australian Baseball League's best-of-3 championship finals after a 3-2 win in Game 1. Adelaide is looking for its first title; Knight coached Perth to championships in 2012 and 2013 before retiring (temporarily, as it turns out) from the ABL.

Former Knights' pitcher Colin Feldtman (2013) is playing for Adelaide; alum Liam Baron (2008-09) is on the Perth squad. Here is more on Game 1, from the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper.

And here is even more, from MLB.com.

Go Bite!

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Another roster move to announce. The Knights have signed George Fox University outfielder AJ Valencia to a 10-day contract.

Valencia is a 5-foot-8, 155-pound freshman outfielder from Phoenix. A lefty thrower and hitter, AJ graduated from Desert Vista High School, where he was a three-year starter in center field. He hit .385 as a senior.

Welcome to the team, AJ!

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The Yakima Valley Pippins have signed Cal State-Northridge pitchers Matt Campbell and Monty McCasland for the 2015 season. You can click here for more information on that story, from the Our Sports Central website.

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That is all for today. Stay dry, have a great weekend and we will see you on Monday.

Taylor Ard signs with Frontier League club

Happy Wednesday, everyone.

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Some Knights news to report.

Former Corvallis first baseman Taylor Ard (2009), a slugger on the 2009 club that lost to Wenatchee in the West Coast League Championship Series, has re-signed with the River City Rascals in the independent Frontier League.

Taylor played at Mt. Hood and at Washington State before signing with Seattle in 2012. He was released after two seasons in their system. He then played 50 games at River City, was signed by Arizona and played for three different teams in their farm system last season.

He was released after the season. Ard hit .338 for the Rascals in 2014, with nine homers and 33 RBIs in 50 games.

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Former Knights' play-by-play announcer Kevin Burke (2012) is the voice of High Point University women's basketball this winter. No word yet on where he'll be this summer. To follow him on Twitter, please click here. Lots of photos from what sounds like a hectic season.

Kevin worked for the Traverse City (Mich.) Beach Bums in the Frontier League last summer. He was at Pensacola (Fla.) in the double-A Southern League in 2013 as their No. 2 voice.

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The Victoria HarbourCats have signed seven new players for 2015, increasing their roster to 30. The newest team members are Ryan Wilson, a LHP from Pepperdine; Matt Blais, a RHP from UC Davis; Sean O'Toole, a RHP from St. Mary's College; Chase Lambert, an infielder from Pepperdine; Cam Santos, an infielder from Chico State; Ryan Anderson, an infielder from UC Davis, and Jackson Thoreson, a catcher from St. Mary's.

You can click here for more information on that story, from the Our Sports Central website.

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That is all for today. See you on Friday.

Knights sign GFU pair to 10-day contracts

Happy Monday, everyone.

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Some Knights roster moves to report.

The Knights have signed George Fox sophomore catcher Tyler Hamilton and junior infielder Clay Mott to 10-day contracts for the 2015 season.

A 6-foot-2, 175-pound transfer from Salt Lake Community College, Hamilton hit .200 at SLCC in 14 games at SLCC in 2014. He is a 2012 graduate of Timpanagos High School in Orem, Utah, where he was first-team all-conference, first-team all-state, first-team all-Valley and his team's Gold Glove winner as a senior.

As a junior, Hamilton was first-team all-state and first-team all-Valley. As a sophomore, he was first-team all-conference and honorable-mention all-state.

Mott hit .234 (30-128) in 39 games at GFU in 2014, his first season there after transferring from the University of Portland. He is a 6-foot, 175-pounder from Gresham High in Gresham.

Mott hit .333 (3-9) in seven games as a UP freshman. At Gresham, he was second-team all-state as a senior and a two-time Mt. Hood Conference all-star as an infielder and once as a pitcher.

Welcome to the team, guys.

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Alum Kevin Kline (2013, 2014), a senior at Dixie State, was named a first-team preseason All-West Region team all-star by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA). He hit .325 as a junior, with a team-high 20 doubles and 54 RBIs.

He was second-team all-West Coast League for the Knights in 2014, when he hit .300, with eight homers and 45 RBIs in the regular season. He also hit a dramatic walk-off, two-run homer against Bend to advance the Knights to the WCL Championship Series.

Former Knight Eric Huson (2013), a pitcher at Western Oregon, was a second-team preseason All-West selection.

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The Brooke Knight-coached Adelaide Bite will face the Perth Heat next weekend for the Australian Baseball League championship. Perth swept Sydney in the semifinals this past weekend to advance to the finals against the top-seeded Bite. The best-of-3 series runs from Friday through Sunday at the Norwood Oval in Adelaide, South Australia.

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That is all for today. See you on Wednesday.

Susac, Duffy highly-rated by Baseball America

Happy Friday, everyone.

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Some Knights alumni news to report.

Alums Andrew Susac (2009) and Matt Duffy (2010) are ranked No. 1 and No. 9, respectively, by Baseball America on its list of prospects in the San Francisco Giants organization. Susac is a catcher, Duffy a shortstop/second baseman.

That is actually kind of strange, however. Both players finished the 2014 season in the majors, were on San Francisco's roster throughout the playoffs and even appeared in their World Series win over Kansas City. So we are not exactly sure why they are regarded as prospects, and not major-leaguers.

Be that as it may, congrats to both players. Susac played at Oregon State, Duffy at Long Beach State.

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Alum Bud Norris (2005) of the Baltimore Orioles recently made a $5,000 gift for a baseball student-athlete nutrition plan at Cal Poly, his alma mater. The Major League Baseball Players Association matched the gift. Norris played for the Knights before his junior year at Cal Poly. He was drafted the following June by Houston in the 6th round as the 189th overall selection, and began his pro career.

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Former Walla Walla general manager Zachary Fraser will assume the same role with the Yakima Valley Pippins this season, the team has announced. Both teams are run by the same ownership group, Pacific Baseball Ventures. Here is more on that story, from the Yakima Herald-Republic newspaper.

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We were unable to link this story from the Kitsap Sun newspaper on the plans new owner Matt Acker has for the Kitsap Blue Jackets last fall, but now it's available. He has high hopes for the franchise, one of the oldest in the WCL, and we wish him the best.

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That is all for today. Have a weekend.

Bud Norris signs with Orioles

Happy Wednesday, everyone.

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Some Knights alumni news to report.

The Baltimore Orioles have signed alum Bud Norris (2005) to a new deal, one year for $8.8 million. He's one of our notable Cal Poly alums. Bud was 15-8, 3.65 for the Birds in 2014, with 139 strikeouts in 165.1 innings.

Here is more on that story, from MLB.com. Congrats to Bud, who was all-West Coast League for us.

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The San Diego Padres have invited alum Rocky Gale (2007, 2009) of the University of Portland to their major-league camp as a non-roster invite. He hit a career-high .303 last season at triple-A El Paso, with no homers and 35 RBIs in 77 games.

Also, infielder Brent Morel (2006, 2007), the first Corvallis Knight to make the major leagues, has been invited to spring training by Pittsburgh, also as a non-roster invitee. He split time between the Pirates and triple-A Indianapolis in 2014. He hit .179 with four RBIs in 23 games for the Pirates and .271 with four homers and 53 RBIs in 92 games at Indianapolis.

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The Bellingham Bells have signed three players from Chico State University to the 2015 roster. They are pitchers A.J. Epstein and Hunter Haworth and outfielder Alex Michaels, a former Knights (2012) who played at Cal Poly before transferring. Here is more on that story, from the Our Sports Central website.

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The Walla Walla Sweets have made some moves as well, adding first baseman Dominic Lopez of Texas A&M Corpus Christi and pitcher Sam Hellinger of College of San Mateo to their 2015 roster. Here is more on that story, from the Our Sports Central website.

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That is all for today. Have a day and we will see you on Friday.

Padres release RHP Max Beatty

Happy Monday, everyone. It was a great weekend in Corvallis and we hope it was in your neck of the woods, too.

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Some Knights alumni news to report.

The San Diego Padres have released pitcher Max Beatty (2010-12), a Pacific Lutheran product who recovered from cancer to become a mainstay on our 2011 and 2012 clubs. Max was drafted by San Diego in 2013 and spent the past two years in Class A, where he was 2-3 in 39 games, with a 4.87 ERA, one save and 52 strikeouts in 57.1 innings. Max played with the Eugene Emeralds in the Northwest League last summer.

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The Chicago White Sox have signed free-agent second baseman Drew Garcia (2007), a UC Riverside product who was a member of our first team in Corvallis.

Drew was drafted by the White Sox in 2008 and then played six years in their farm system before being traded to Colorado during the 2013 season. He spent last year at triple-A Colorado Springs in the Pacific Coast League and hit .237 in 96 games, with four homers and 36 RBIs.

Drew is a lifetime .250 hitter in 734 minor-league games, with 44 homers and 366 RBIs. He will most likely start the year with Charlotte in the triple-A International League.

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The Miami Marlins have released pitcher Justin Hepner, a San Diego State product who pitched briefly for us in 2011. He made two appearances for the Gulf Coast League Marlins last year and had no record and a 12.37 ERA in three games.

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The Adelaide Bite, coached by Knights' skipper Brooke Knight, have clinched first place and the #1 seed in the upcoming Australian Baseball League playoffs. They finished with a 32-16 record, four games better than second-place Perth. Adelaide will play the winner of the Perth-Sydney series for the championship. The playoffs start Friday.

Knight coached Perth to the 2011 and 2012 ABL championships. He took 2013 off, then was hired by Adelaide early in the 2014 season and returned there this year.

Here is a roundup of former Knights in the ABL:

ROCKY GALE (2007, 2009, Adelaide) : The former Portland catcher hit .275 (20-75) in 23 games, with no homers and nine RBIs. Gale is now back in the United States, preparing for spring training; he is in the San Diego minor-league system. He hit almost .300 at triple-A El Paso in 2014.

COLIN FELDTMAN (2013, Adelaide) : The former Portland pitcher is 0-0, 9.58 in seven games, with 15 strikeouts in 10.1 innings. He is back on the active roster.

LIAM BARON (2008-09, Perth) : The former Linn-Benton CC and Gonzaga pitcher is 0-0, 0.68 in six appearances, with eight strikeouts in 13.1 innings. He is a Perth native and a many-year veteran of the Heat.

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That is all for today. Have a day and we will see you on Wednesday.

Van Vleet added to Board of Directors

Happy Friday, everyone.

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More Knights news to report.

The Knights have added four people to our Board of Directors. Most recognizable to Corvallis fans is Jaimie Van Vleet, our former ticket director/director of player housing/jack of all trades down at the WWHQ.

She's done just about everything there is to do with the team since joining as an intern in 2008, and fully deserves this honor. Here is more on that story, from our website.

Congrats!

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The Yakima Valley Pippins have added two incoming freshmen at UC Riverside for the 2015 season. They've signed catcher Ryan Lillie and outfielder AJ Sawyer to their roster.

Lillie is from Vista Murrieta High School in Murrieta, Calif; Sawyer is from Temecula Valley High School, VMHS's rival. A. Here's more on that story, from Our Sports Central.

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The West Coast League-champion Bellingham Bells have added a two-game, non-league series with the San Francisco Seals on July 10 and 11. Both games will be played at Joe Martin Field in Bellingham, bringing the number of home contests to 29. please click here and read the details, from the Our Sports Central website.

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The Kelowna Falcons will play an unbalanced 54-game regular season schedule that will take them a league leading 9,239.2 kilometers (nearly 6,000 miles) throughout the Pacific Northwest. The club will play in the East Division and host 27 home games during their 15th season. Our Sports Central has all the details; just click here to read more about it.

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That is all for today. Have a great weekend and we will see you on Monday.

Knights sign Kaplan to 10-day contract

Happy Wednesday, everyone.

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More signing news to report.

The Knights have signed freshman pitcher Chase Kaplan of Western Nevada (junior) College to a 10-day contract for the 2015 season. A graduate of Hillsboro High School, he played in the 2014 Reser's Oregon All-Star Series at Goss Stadium.

Kaplan is a 6-foot-5, 220-pound lefty. Ten-day signees are not guaranteed a full-time roster spot, but it's not uncommon for a 10-day signee to remain with the team the entire season.

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The Knights will celebrate our silver (25th) anniversary season in 2015 with what we're calling the start of the franchise's "Golden Era." Here is more on that story, from the Knights front office team.

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The West Coast League-champion Bellingham Bells have announced the return of two outfielders, Walker Olis of Pacific University and Aaron Stroosma of Liberty University in Virginia. For more on that story, please click here and read the details, from the Our Sports Central website.

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The Walla Walla Sweets have finalized their 2015 coaching staff. Our Sports Central has all the details; just click here to read more about it.

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That is all for today. See you on Friday.