Knights edge Bend 4-3 to advance to the WCCBL Championship Series to face East champs Wenatchee.

Ryan Platt (pictured) of UC Riverside pitched 7 shutout innings to earn the win. Platt struck out 8 and allowed only 3 hits as the senior-to be right-hander improved his record to 3-0 and lowered his ERA to 0.93.

With the win, the Knights advance to the WCCBL Championship Series for the second straight summer. Corvallis will face East Division Champion Wenatchee. The AppleSox have appeared in the WCCBL Championship Series 3 of the last 4 years. The Knights would also be making their 3rd appearance (in the WCCBL Championship Series) in the last four seasons if the team had declined an invitation to defend its 2004 NBC World Series title in Wichita, Kansas in 2005.

The Knights finished 27-9 that season two games back of Wenatchee, and would have met the Sox in the finals.

This is the first time the Knights and Wenatchee have met in the league's championship series.

Corvallis was up 4-0 Thursday night to start the eighth inning. That's when the Elks rallied vs. the Knights' bullpen. Ben Rue of Concordia, who replaced Platt, was greeted rudely allowing a double, single and single to the first three batters he faced before inducing a ground out. Geoff Nichols, a junior-to be at Oregon, replaced Rue with one out and proceeded to walk two runners and allow the Elks' second run to score on a wild pitch and third run to score on a single before getting out of the inning with the Knights still ahead 4-3.

The second out of the eighth was recorded on a wild pitch as Tommy Richards of Bend tried to score a second run on the play as Knights' catcher Alex Burg threw wildly to Nichols trying to nail the runner attempting to score from third on the wild pitch. The errant throw was caught by third baseman Doug Cherry of UW and Cherry threw to Nichols to tag out Richards at the plate, who tried to score from second.

Oklahoma State first baseman Dean Green was the Knights' offensive star as the left-handed hitting slugger went 3 for 4 on the night. Green drove in the Knights' first run in the second inning with a RBI single to left. That proved to be enough for Platt as the Knights would never relinquish the lead in a hard fought deciding playoff game.

"You always want to play on the biggest stage," starting pitcher Ryan Platt of UC Riverside said. "For this summer league, this is the biggest stage, so I'm excited and hope we can go out there and win it."

Green led off the fourth inning with a double to right. Second baseman Josh Hogan, a junior to-be at Oregon, bunted Green to third and Cherry singled Dean home to plate the Knights' third run.

Platt continued strong through seven innings and Corvallis put up a key insurance run in the bottom of the seventh as Mt. Hood CC rightfielder Billy Clontz singled to right with one out, advanced to second on a ground out by University of Portland designated hitter Bryant Kraus and scored the Knights' fourth run on a two-out RBI single to left by Adam Melker of Cal Poly.

After Bend scored three in the eighth, skipper Brooke Knight called on WCCBL saves leader Taylor Starr of OSU to close out the game and series. Starr retired the Elks in order to earn his 9th save of the season.

"Taylor was focused tonight and we needed that," said Knight. "It was time for him to step up for us again and he did. I am happy to see him like that because we are going to need him against Wenatchee."

Starr and Platt were the difference as Corvallis beat the Elks for the eighth time in nine meetings this season on a sweltering night at Goss Stadium. The game time temperature was 100 degrees on a day that saw a high of 103 degrees.

"I worked economically," Platt said. "I just tried to get ahead of all of them."

Hogan was the game's defensive star making several outstanding plays in the field. Hogie had 9 assists.

Melker stole three bases and went 1 for 2 with a clutch RBI single.

The WCCBL Championship Series opens in Wenatchee on Saturday, August 16 at Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium.

You can catch the entire WCCBL Championship Series on 990 AM The Legend. Tune into Mike Parker, the voice of the Knights, as he calls all the action.