Corvallis blanks Kitsap 5-0 to split series in extreme heat at Goss.
July 26, 2009
Starter Eddie Orozco (pictured) of UC Riverside pitched six scoreless innings to earn the win.
Orozco's outing was his first that was long enough to earn a win, and Eddie did just that in Corvallis' 5-0 victory over the Kitsap BlueJackets.
"I had three outings where my pitch count was 50, 60 and 60 again so I wasn't given much room," Orozco said. "We pushed it up to 80, went through six innings and ended at exactly 80. It was nice to get a win, it's all about winning games."
In sweltering heat, it looked like there might be a carry over from last night's bench-clearing incident when in the bottom of the second first baseman DJ Johnson was drilled in the elbow. Home plate umpire Terry Fischer immediately stepped in front of Johnson, and the Western Oregon-bound junior-to be waved his hand to say all was ok and made his way to first base, incident free.
The Knights got their revenge in the third when Adam Melker of Cal Poly led-off the inning with a double down the leftfield line, Washington second baseman Doug Cherry was hit by a pitch and after Pat Colwell of San Diego State delivered a bunt single, both Melker and Cherry scored on a single to left by Richie Jimenez of Riverside CC while Colwell was thrown out trying to advance to third.
Dylan Jones, a junior-to be at Oregon State, then singled to center to run Kitsap's starter.
BlueJackets' reliever Antone Saltvick did not fare much better than starter Steven Singer, as Saltvick walked Johnson and then Billy Clontz of Western Oregon plating Jimenez.
"I told myself last night that we weren't going to lose this game," Orozco said. "Even if we didn't score any runs I told, Rocky [Gale], 'I'm not going to give up any runs today.'"
The Knights cushioned their 3-0 lead in the sixth when with one out Melker singled to center. After stealing second, Melker moved to third on a single by Cherry. Run number four came on a Colwell single, scoring Melker.
With runners on first and third, Colwell was thrown out stealing second base, but on the the play Cherry scored easily.
In his first start since returning to the Corvallis Knights, Melker finished the day 3-for-4 with two runs scored, a stolen base and a double.
Cherry, Colwell and catcher Andrew Susac both finished with two hits apiece.
Orozco threw six scoreless innings while striking out five.
UC Irvine junior-to be Nick Hoover tossed two scoreless innings and struck out four BlueJackets.
In his Knights debut, Bryan Dalton of Columbia Basin College finished the game by posting a zero in the game's final frame.
Orozco, Hoover and Dalton combined to shutout Kitsap, the Knights' 8th of the season.
With the win, Corvallis improved to 38-8 overall and 29-8 in the West Coast League.
The Knights get a much anticipated day off on Monday before heading on a six-game road trip Tuesday starting in Bellingham.
Knights head into WCL stretch run with 5-0 win over Kitsap by Brooks Hatch, Gazette-Times
