Knights drop series opener at Gresham, 6-4.

The GreyWolves capitalized on Corvallis pitchers wildness on their way to a WCL series opening victory at Oslund Field.

Corvallis starter Grant Goodman walked in two runs in the first inning and reliever Cameron Richman walked home two more in the third inning. They combined for seven walks in the two innings.

Two more walks and a two-out error gave the GreyWolves (19-18 all, 8-2 second half) two more runs in the seventh inning, when they broke a 4-4 tie. They held on to win the first-ever game between the teams.

Five Corvallis pitchers combined for 14 walks, one hit batsman, a wild pitch and a balk. The walks directly led to all six Gresham runs.

First baseman Roman Garcia (pictured) and catcher Nick Kahle (Washington in 2017) each had two doubles and Zak Taylor (Oregon State) homered and singled twice for the Knights (29-15 overall, 22-15 WCL, 4-6 second half). A rising senior at San Diego, Garcia now has three doubles and two triples in his last four games.

Shortstop Andy Atwood's (OSU) RBI single gave the Knights a brief 1-0 lead in the first inning, before the walkfest enabled Gresham to go ahead 4-1. Atwood also had two hits.

In the fourth, the Knights drew to within 4-3 on Taylor's solo homer and back-to-back doubles by Garcia and Kahle. Garcia doubled in the tying run in the fifth inning.

The series resumes at 7:05 p.m. Thursday. UC Riverside lefty Hazahel Quijada (1-0, 0.88) will start for the Knights, opposed by Donavon Ramirez (2-2, 1.44) of Cal State-East Bay.

It concludes at 7:05 p.m. Friday; lefty Jacob Fricke (3-0, 2.14) of Western Oregon will start for the Knights; Andrew Heideman (3-1, 4.86) of Concordia goes for the GreyWolves.

The Knights' next home game is Saturday against Victoria, the North Division's first-half champion.