Knights drop game one of WCL Championship Series 4-1 to Wenatchee before a crowd of 1,297 at Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium.
August 13, 2009
Senior-to be outfielder Pat Colwell (pictured) of San Diego State scored the Knights only run.
Sophomore Zach Gallagher of Columbia Basin College stifled Corvallis for six innings to earn the win.
Corvallis was no-hit for four innings as Gallagher took a no-hitter into the fifth.
The right-hander from Camas, Washington threw 4 2/3 innings of hitless baseball and appeared to be cruising until Colwell singled up the middle to start a two-out rally in the fifth inning.
Catcher Andrew Susac followed Colwell's single with a hard ground ball to third that Wenatchee third baseman DJ Crumlich of UC Irvine booted for an error. Then Josh Hogan walked to load the bases and the first pitch to Knights' third baseman Doug Cherry of UW was wild, which scored Colwell and tied the game at 1-1. But the sophomore got out of trouble when Cherry swung at the next pitch and grounded out to end the threat.
The Knights looked like they had Gallagher on the ropes again in the sixth as Dylan Jones of Mt. Hood CC led-off the inning with a double off the rightfield wall, but he was retired on the next pitch as shortstop Richie Jimenez of Riverside CC bunted right back to the pitcher who easily threw out Jones at third base.
With one out, the Knights kept the pressure on the Sox young pitcher as Taylor Ard of Mt. Hood CC singled sharply to right advancing Jimenez to third. However, Gallagher got the best of Cal Poly sluggers Adam Melker and DJ Gentile by striking out both batters swinging on fastballs to end the inning.
With momentum on their side, Wenatchee scored three runs in the sixth off starter Steve Kalush of Santa Clara. Kevin Komstadius of University of Washington led-off with his second single of the game. After a fielder's choice ground out erased Komstadius, Jesse Moore of Hawaii singled to right advancing the runner to third and Moore advanced to second when rightfielder Billy Clontz's throw to third bounced away from Cherry. Then after frosh-to be Matt Moynihan of University of San Diego missed a sign and took a healthy hack fouling off a pitch on a suicide squeeze, the high school senior stroked a ball into the left-center gap for a two-run triple. After Kalush walked the next batter, skipper Brooke Knight called on Trevor Smith of Linn-Benton CC to stop the bleeding.
Smith was effective in relief, but gave up a bloop RBI single to the first batter he faced, frosh-to be Cody Keefer of UCLA. The high school senior from Davis, California went 4-for-5 on the night with two infield hits.
Trevor got out of sixth without further damage and pitched 2 2/3 innings of scoreless ball while striking out 4 AppleSox.
Frosh right-hander Ryan Gorton of Oregon State replaced Gallagher to start the seventh and tossed two scoreless innings while striking out 3.
Susac doubled off Gorton in the 7th, which was the only hit off the Sox pen as Paul Shewey of Washington State threw a hitless ninth to earn the save. Shewey walked one and struck out 2.
Wenatchee collected 11 hits to the Knights' four hits.
The WCL Championship Series shifts to Corvallis on Monday, August 17th as the Knights face elimination and hope to extend the Series to a third game on Tuesday, August 18th.
Eddie Orozco (2-0, 2.20) of UC Riverside is the probable Monday starter for Corvallis.
1,297 Wenatchee fans came out to root on their AppleSox, a post-season single-game attendance record for the Sox.
You can listen to the rest of the Series on KEJO 1240 AM. Mike Parker calls all the action.
