Knights win 3-2 over Rogues on Quinlan's sac fly.
July 8, 2014Marc Gallegos (pictured) homered, doubled, singled, scored twice and tallied the winning run in the 11th inning on Tuesday in Corvallis' 3-2 victory over Medford.
Gallegos reached second leading off the 11th when his line drove to deep left field was dropped. Jackson Soto was intentionally walked and everyone moved up a base on Phil Leopold's bunt single, leading the bases.
Scott Quinlan then sent Gallegos home with the decisive run by hitting a a fly ball to deep right field that didn't even draw a throw.
"As a team we had tons of confidence," Gallegos said. "We know we have what it takes to win. I had a good at-bat early, which gave me confidence later."
The Knights (20-11 all, 18-11 WCL) captured the series with their second straight extra-inning triumph; they also prevailed 9-8 in 12 innings in Monday's opener. Their seventh win in their last eight games kept them in first place in the South Division of the West Coast League.
Reliever Brandon Choate improved to 2-0 with a season-high three scoreless innings. Joey Wise added a scoreless inning in relief of starter Chris Haddeland as the bullpen rebounded from a sub-par effort in the previous two games with four combined shutout frames.
Haddeland made his fourth consecutive quality start and allowed two runs and five hits over seven innings. Medford scored twice in the second on four hits, but Haddeland did not allow another safety until there were two outs in the seventh. He struck out three, walked one and got a non-decision.
Knights came back to forge a 2-2 tie. Gallegos halved the deficit in the third with his solo homer to left field, his first as a Knight. Corvallis pulled even in the fourth on Quinlan's double, a stolen base and Josh Latta's sacrifice fly, his first RBI of the summer.
Corvallis almost won the game in the ninth but Dane Lund was thrown out at home trying to score from second on Michael Lucarelli's single to center field. Lucarelli advanced to second on the play but was stranded.
That forced the third extra-inning affair in the five games between the teams at Goss Stadium this summer. The Knights have won all three and are 8-0 all-time at home against the Rogues.
Lucarelli and Dalton Kelly had two hits apiece for Corvallis. Kelly extended his hitting streak to seven consecutive games; he's batting .483 (14-29) in that span and has bumped his average from .111 to .340.
The series concludes at 6:40 p.m. Wednesday. The projected starters are Justin Calomeni (1-1, 2.41) of Cal Poly for the Knights, opposed by Jackson Bertsch (3-1, 3.22) of Lane CC in a matchup of freshmen right-handers.
Tuesday's crowd of 1,146 upped the 2014 attendance to 23,822 in 19 openings. That�s 286 more than in 2013, when the Knights drew a franchise-record 43,557 fans, through a corresponding number of home dates.