Knights sweep Pippins, advance to WCL finals.

Corvallis defeated Yakima Valley 7-3 to sweep its South Division playoff series and advance to the West Coast League Championship Series for the eighth time in 10 years.

Center fielder Kyle Nobach (pictured) of Oregon State tripled, singled twice, scored twice and drove in a run to ignite a Corvallis offense that pounded out four extra-base hits and 14 hits overall. The Knights (43-20) scored three times in the first inning and never looked back in eliminating the Pippins (32-24); Corvallis won Tuesday's series opener 4-2 at Yakima.

The Knights will open the best-of-3 WCL Championship Series at 7:05 p.m. Saturday at Bellingham in a rematch of the 2014 finals, which the Bells won 2-1. Games 2 and 3 (if necessary) will be at Goss Stadium on Monday and Tuesday, starting at 6:40 p.m.

"Now that we are going to championship, it is a different feeling, something you can't really explain," Nobach said. "This team has a lot of camaraderie, no selfishness, everybody playing for each other.

"There is a feeling on the team right now that no matter what the score is it doesn't feel like we are going to lose."

First baseman Roman Garcia (San Diego) doubled, singled and drove in three runs for the Knights, who are 12-1 in their last 13 games. Shortstop Andy Atwood (OSU) doubled twice, scored twice and drove in a run and right fielder Cody Hawken (Portland) singled twice and had an RBI.

Every player in the lineup had at least one hit or one run, and the Knights scored five times with two outs. The final two runs came in the eighth on successive two-out doubles by Atwood and Garcia that gave reliever Chris Burkholder (Dartmouth) a comfortable four-run lead heading into the ninth.

"Those extras runs are just key," Nobach said. "It loosens us up and we don't have to bring in our closer," Chase Kaplan (Kansas in 2016-17), who saved Game 1. "We can save his arm some."

The Knights defeated two pitchers who threw complete-game wins against them in the regular season while eliminating the Pippins. Wednesday's loser, Gavin Velasquez, shut out the Knights 7-0 on four hits in Corvallis back on July 8. Tuesday night's loser, Zach Draper, allowed just five hits in besting the Knights 7-3 on July 10.

Corvallis starter Aaron Pope (Dixie State) pitched into the sixth and allowed three runs on six hits, with five strikeouts. Reliever Ryley Widell (Central Arizona) entered the game with no outs and a runner on second in the sixth and kept the Pippins off the board to protect a 4-3 advantage.

The Knights doubled their lead to 5-3 by scoring once in sixth and Burkholder shut the Pippins down the rest of the way. The reigning WCL Pitcher of the Week allowed two hits, struck out four and lowered his ERA to 0.64 over 28 innings in his last eight appearances.

Bellingham crushed host Victoria 12-1 on Wednesday to sweep the North Division playoff series. The HarbourCats (40-14) posted the league's best regular-season record.

Wednesday's crowd of 1,679 increased the team's total season attendance to a team-record 50,688 in 33 dates, an average of 1,536 per game. The old mark of 49,443 was set in 2015, also in 33 openings.