WCL Coach of the Year Back to Managing in Australia.

Adelaide Bite of Australian Baseball League Hire Corvallis Knights Skipper Brooke Knight

Corvallis Knights head coach Brooke Knight (pictured after last summer's WCLCS clincher) was named the new manager of the Adelaide Bite of the Australian Baseball League this past Friday.

The Bite were 3-6 and in fifth place in the six-team ABL heading into last weekend's three-game series at Melbourne. Knight succeeds Charlie Aliano, who was relieved of his duties last week.

Knight was travelling with the ABL's contingent at the 2013 Asia Series in Taichung, Taiwan at the time of the Bite's announcement. He will assume control of the team starting with the Nov. 28-30 home series with Brisbane.

"I am thrilled to take the next step in my career with such a talented roster and first-rate organization as the Bite," Knight said Friday. "With the core group of men we have bolstering our lineup and pitching staff, I am confident we will have things heading in the right direction in no time in our pursuit of the Claxton Shield," the ABL's championship award.

Brooke is the most winning manager in the four-year history of the ABL, which is affiliated with Major-League Baseball. He posted a 58-27 record in two championship seasons (2011-2012) with the Perth Heat. He did not manage in the ABL last season.

The Knights' long-time skipper will begin his seventh year as field manager of Corvallis next June. During his tenure, the Knights have captured three West Coast League championships, seven regular-season division titles and six divisional playoff series wins and is 286-125 overall. He was the WCL Coach of the Year in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2013.

Knight is a Corvallis native and a graduate of Crescent Valley High School and Western Oregon University. He played college baseball at Oregon State and at WOU, for the former Richey's Market American Legion program, for the Knights in 1991, 1992 and 1994, and in the Pittsburg and Milwaukee minor-league organizations.

He also played football at OSU and played and then coached baseball professionally in Australia before returning to the United States. He and his wife, Karlie (an Aussie), live in Coronado, California in the off-season and have a son, Briley.