Chicken rocks, Johnson rolls in win over Kelowna.
July 15, 2011Starter Chris Johnson (pictured) allowed one hit and faced just one batter over the six-inning minimum and the Knights won the series with a 9-2 victory over the Falcons.
A Goss Stadium crowd of 1,428 was equally entertained by the World-Famous San Diego Chicken and an explosive Knights� offense. Corvallis rocked Falcons� starter Ryan Paterson for six runs, six hits and triples by Corey Moore and David Andriese in 2.1 innings for its seventh win in its last eight games.
Johnson (3-0) struck out three, walked none and got eight outs via groundballs. The lone hit he allowed was a ground single by Nick Colwell that just snuck through the infield with two outs in the fourth.
Johnson retired the first 11, and final seven, batters he faced in order and extended his 2011 scoreless streak to 11 consecutive innings, all against the Falcons (10-25). It started in Kelowna on July 8, when he allowed three runs in the first and then threw blanks for the next five innings of an eventual 6-4 Corvallis victory.
"I was getting ahead early and I used different pitches to keep them off-balance," said Johnson, a junior-to-be at Portland who threw 40 of his 63 pitches for strikes. "My fastball was my go-to pitch tonight; I was throwing it harder than usual.
"Then I switched up between my changeup and curveball."
The Knights (23-13, 21-13 WCL) maintained their 1.5-game lead over Bend atop the West Division of the West Coast League. They are 5-0 vs. Kelowna in 2011 and have won six in a row in the series over the past two summers.
Corvallis took a 3-0 lead in the second on a walk, Moore's RBI triple, an error on a stolen base and an RBI single by Trent Oleszczuk. Andriese tripled in two runs and scored on Moore�s sacrifice fly to double the margin in the third.
The final two runs scored in the seventh on an error and David Armendariz's RBI single. Moore and Andriese had two RBIs to complement their triples; Ryan Gorton, Oleszczuk and Armendariz all had two hits and Jimmy Allen scored twice and added a sacrifice fly.
The series concludes at 5:15 p.m. Sunday. Lefty Jace Fry (1-1, 1.50), a Southridge High graduate who has signed with Oregon State, is the Knights' projected starter.
It is Fitzpatrick Painting the Park Pink Night, presented by the Corvallis Clinic's Project H.E.R., to raise breast cancer awareness. Pink lemonade and hot pink tee-shirts will be for sale and a portion of sales will be donated to Project H.E.R.
The Knights' third-largest crowd of the summer raised their season attendance to 22,790 for 18 home dates.
Corvallis opens a three-game series at Bellingham on Monday night. Its next home game is Friday, when Cowlitz and the ZOOperstars! visit Goss Stadium for a 6:40 p.m. game.