Knights break two-game home skid, win non-leaguer vs. its affiliate club.
July 5, 2007Brett Casey (pictured stealing second) of OSU went 3 for 3 with 2 stolen bases as Corvallis beat the Gresham Mountaineers 3-1. Jake Roy of Dakota Wesleyan delivered a game-tying two-out RBI single in the fifth-inning to tie its affiliate team the Gresham Mountaineers 1-1. Matt Fitts of Lewis-Clark State College started and threw 4 innings and struckout 6. Relievers Brett Brunner of PLU, Mike Cusick of Western Oregon and Brad Kidd of BYU combined to hold the Mountaineers at bay and toss five scoreless innings. Kidd pitched the last two innings to earn the win and improve his record to 3-1.
Corvallis took the lead with a two-run eighth-inning. Shortstop Drew Garcia led off the inning with a single, stole second and moved to third on Casey's third single of the game. Second baseman Josh Hogan plated the winning run with a RBI groundout, Hogan's team leading 11th RBI of the season. After Casey stole third, his second stolen base of the game, outfielder Braden Wells of the Beavers delivered a sacrifice fly to put Corvallis up 3-1. Casey reached base all four plate appearances as Brett went 3 for 3 with a walk. Garcia went 2 for 4 and reached base three times.
"I got some good jumps and coach called the plays at the right times," said Brett Casey.
The Mountaineers are coached by ex-Knight Bryan Donohue and the team's general manager is the Knights #1 fan Bill Kerr.
"It was a good night. There were a lot of familiar faces," said head coach Matt Dorey.
"It's hard to get these guys as motivated as they are (the Mountaineers), it's a big brother little brother thing, but we hit better tonight," said Dorey.
With the non-league win, Corvallis improves to 16-10 overall.
The Knights travel to Bremerton Saturday to start a three-game division series with the West leading Kitsap BlueJackets. Kitsap is 12-6 and two games ahead of Corvallis. Bend is now in second place in the West with a 11-8 record.
Mike Parker, the voice of the Beavers and Knights, will broadcast the series on 990 AM The Legend. Saturday night's game starts at 7 pm and Sunday's doubleheader starts at 1 pm.
The Knights return to Goss on Monday as the Knights face Richey's Market American Legion at 7:05 pm in a non-league contest.
Monday, July 9 is Richey's Night. Dick McClain the Executive Director of the NWAACC and legendary Richey's coach is slated to throw out the first pitch.
Friday night was the club's first date night. "It was terrific," said Guest Services intern Dianna Holland of Albany. Dianna is one of the club's interns who helped put on date night at Goss. "It was nice to see people actually out on dates and having fun."
"It was successful evening," said Knights' outfielder Billy Clontz. Billy was one of two players auctioned off on date night. He also handed out 24 flowers to dates during tonight's game. "I helped make a lot of ladies night's." said Clontz with a wink and a smile.