Knights clinch 6th straight West Division crown.

Connor Hofmann (pictured) of Oregon had three hits and two RBIs to lead Corvallis to the 9-3 win at Klamath Falls.

The Corvallis Knights (30-21 WCL, 35-21 overall) lead the division by five games over the second-place Gems (25-26 WCL) with three games remaining. The Knights have won the West Division every summer since moving to Corvallis from Gresham for the 2007 season.

Reliever Kyle Hart pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth innings to seal the deal. The Knights have now won five in a row and 7 of their last 8 to break open what was a close division pennant race.

The Knights rocked four Gems' pitchers for three doubles and 14 hits. Caleb Whalen, Nick Torres, Dane Lund and Marc Gallegos added two hits apiece to complement Hofmann; Whalen and Nate Esposito each had two RBIs.

The Knights scored twice in the first on Whalen's two-out double. They added three more runs in the second on RBI singles from Hofmann and Greg Mahle and an RBI double from Lund, a junior-to be at San Jose State, for a 5-0 advantage.

Klamath Falls got two run back in the fourth but the Knights answered with three in the fifth for an 8-2 lead. One run scored on a wild pitch; Esposito and Hofmann drove in the other runs. Esposito knocked in the final run in the seventh.

Game two of the series is slated to start at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday. Max Beatty (2-1, 3.28) of Pacific Lutheran will start for the Knights, opposed by Mitch Merten (5-1, 2.47) of UC Irvine in a matchup of hard-throwing right-handers.

The best-of-3 West Division playoffs are scheduled to start on Saturday. However, if the Knights play the Gems the travel day will be eliminated and the series will start on Friday, since the teams are already in Klamath Falls. It would continue in Corvallis on Saturday and on Sunday, if necessary.

Cowlitz (24-27 WCL) and Bend (23-28 WCL) each won on Monday night and trail Klamath Falls by one and two games, respectively, in the race for second place and the other playoff berth. They play in Longview this Tuesday-Thursday.

If Cowlitz or Bend finishes second, the Knights will start the divisional playoffs on Saturday, on the road. Cowlitz and Bend have the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Gems and would advance if they tie.