Corvallis rallies to stun Bells 6-4, claim WCL crown.

The Knights scored four times in their final two at-bats to edge Bellingham in a decisive game three of the WCLCS.

It was the fourth WCL championship for the Knights (45-21), who won 14 of their final 16 games in a brilliant stretch sprint to the title. It was also their first Game 3 Championship Series victory in three chances.

First baseman Roman Garcia (pictured) of San Diego was foremost among a plethora of hometown heroes. His towering two-run homer to left field in the bottom of the seventh gave the Knights a 5-4 lead; relievers Chris Burkholder (Dartmouth) and Trenton Dupre (Washington State) then carried the Knights to the finish line, aided by several tremendous defensive plays.

Corvallis qualified for the playoffs by winning the South Division's first-half and swept Yakima Valley in the South Division Series to advance to the WCL Championship Series for the eighth time in 10 seasons.

"We have been a championship team all season," said Garcia, an honorable-mention WCL all-star who hit .381 (8-21) with two doubles, a homer and six RBIs in the playoffs. "The first half we dominated.

"This was a championship game! Every game has ups and downs; we had some opportunities and we ended up on top. We are the ones who won it.

"I will always remember this and I will always remember the Knights."

The finale eptomized a see-saw Championship Series. The Knights took Game 1, 4-0, at Bellingham on Aug. 13. The Bells prevailed 5-2 at Goss Stadium on Aug. 15 to force Tuesday's rubber game.

Victimized by five errors, the Knights trailed 4-2 entering the pivotal seventh inning. Emilio Alcantar (Lewis-Clark State), returning to action after a three-game suspension, was hit by a pitch leading off the seventh and advanced to third on two wild pitches.

He then scored on Andy Atwood's (Oregon State) single to make it 4-3. Atwood and Garcia then jubilantly danced home when Garcia blasted the first pitch he saw from reliever Jeff Gelinas well over the taller portion of the left-field fence for a two-run homer and a 5-4 advantage.

The Knights were not out of the woods yet. Bellingham's David Banuelos led off the top of the eighth with a single off Burkholder and Jake Vieth then drove a ball to the base of the center-field wall that appeared destined to tie the game.

However, the relay from center fielder Kyle Nobach (OSU) to second baseman Matt Kelly (Portland) to catcher Zak Taylor (OSU) cut down Banuelos at home, with Taylor making a diving tag. Vieth was stranded at third when Burkholder and Dupre struck out the next two hitters.

Alcantar drove in an insurance run in the eighth for a 6-4 lead.

Atwood made a great play from the hole to retire leadoff batter Matt Dileo in the ninth, and Dupre got the final two outs on a fly ball to center and a called strike three.

Dupre set down all four batters he faced for his second save of the series. He also pitched three perfect innings on Aug. 13 in saving a 4-0 win at Bellingham in Game 1; he retired all 13 hitters he faced in the series, seven by strikeout.

Taylor Travess (Mt. Hood) and Taylor also drove in runs for the Knights, who overcame five errors with a gutsy comeback performance. Garcia homered and singled, Atwood doubled, singled and scored and Alcantar scored and drove in a run in his final two at-bats after making two stops on a long plane ride from Lewiston, Idaho, that started at 5 a.m. Tuesday morning.

The Knights have now captured WCL Championships in 2008 (Wenatchee), 2011 (Walla Walla), 2013 (Wenatchee) and 2016 (Bellingham). They lost in the finals in 2007 (Moses Lake), 2009 (Wenatchee), 2012 (Wenatchee) and 2014 (Bellingham).

Tuesday was their first win in three decisive Game 3s. They lost to Wenatchee in 2012 and Bellingham in 2014 in their previous winner-take-all scenarios. Both games were on the road.

Tuesday's crowd of 1,112 pushed the team's season total to a franchise-record 53,703 in 35 openings. That's an average of 1,534 per night, also a franchise record. Our old standard for total attendance was 49,443 for 33 openings in 2015.