Corvallis wins WCCBL title. Knights beat Wenatchee 4-1 before crowd of 607 at Goss.

Josh Osich (pictured) of OSU tossed eight innings to earn the win, Adam Melker of Cal Poly collected 3 RBI and Dean Green of Oklahoma State homered to lead the Knights to victory.

Oregon State southpaw Josh Osich came up big for the Knights as the soph-to be from Boise, Idaho went eight strong innings, allowing only 3 hits and one run while striking out 6. Osich faced two batters over the minimum (over eight innings) and shut down the AppleSox after giving up a run in the top of the first.

With the win, Osich finished the season 5-0 and lowered his ERA to 1.96. Josh's five wins are a team high. Osich struck out 52 over 46 innings pitched.

"It feels great to get the championship, especially here at Oregon State where I will be for two or three more years," said Osich.

Osich got off to a rough start as Sean Montplaisir of Hawaii tripled off the rightfield wall to lead-off the game. Hawkins Gebbers of Biola scored Montplaisir with a sacrifice fly to right. That would be it for the Sox as Osich settled and stymied the East Division champs.

"I started off kind of bad by leaving the ball up and not hitting spots," Osich said. "I started to find the zone though and let my defense work for me."

Down 1-0, Corvallis responded immediately with three runs in the bottom of the first. Doug Cherry, who went 4 for 5 in game one, got things started with an infield single. Shortstop Richie Jimenez of Riverside CC followed with a single to center and designated hitter Bryant Kraus of Portland loaded the bases with a line drive single to left. With the sacks juiced, junior-to be putfielder Adam Melker of Cal Poly cleared the bases with a drive to deep left-center to put Corvallis up 3-1.

"One of our goals today was to score early," Melker said. "Bases loaded and I was looking for an elevated pitch so I could drive it to the outfield for a sac fly. He hung a change up outside and I went with it. It kept carrying and it worked out good."

Both teams went scoreless until the bottom of the seventh when soph-to be first baseman Dean Green of Oklahoma State blasted a homer to right-center. Green's second homer of the season put the Knights up 4-1.

"Everyone was jacked to come in and play today," Osich said. "After that first inning everyone knew we were going to win that game. Dean hitting a mammoth homer to center really clinched things up for us."

Knights' skipper Brooke Knight called on closer Taylor Starr of Oregon State to finish the game as Starr started the ninth replacing Osich. Starr pitched a perfect 9th to cap an extraordinary season for the Corvallis Knights. Taylor picked up his team leading 10th save by retiring the Sox in order. Starr, a soph-to be from Longview, led the Knights in appearances with 21 and finished the season 1-2 with a 2.49 ERA.

Corvallis captured its first WCCBL title and its first championship since winning the 2004 NBC World Series in Wichita, Kansas. Last summer, the Knights won the West Division and West Divisional Series before losing the 2007 WCCBL Championship Series to Moses Lake. The Knights finished 4th at the 2005 NBC World Series.

For video highlights of Monday night's game and the Gazette-Times recap of the Knights' win read Knights party on at Goss.

The Knights finished the season with a 39-16 record and set a single-season WCCBL record for wins with 31.

Game two of the WCCBL Championship Series was played under two hours (1:59) and before a 2008 postseason high crowd of 607.

Knights' shortstop Richie Jimenez caught the final out to set off a special celebration that saw the Knights storm the field and dogpile at the pitcher's mound.

League president Ken Wilson presented the Corvallis Knights with the 2008 WCCBL Championship trophy much to the delight of the home faithful.

The Knights drew a franchise record 17,928 fans this summer for an average of 640 per game.