Hoover stellar in emergency start, Knights win 4-0.

Surprise starter Nick Hoover (pictured) threw seven scoreless innings and Corvallis won its fourth straight series with a 4-0 victory over Bellingham at Joe Martin Field.

Starting in place of the scheduled starter Chase Johnson, Hoover (2-0) responded with the longest outing in the fifth start of his three-year, 26-game Knights career. The senior-to-be at UC Irvine struck out two, allowed two hits and two walks and faced just four batters over the seven-inning minimum while lowering his ERA from 3.38 to 2.35.

Reliever Jimmie Sherfy of Oregon struck out the side in the eighth. Mark Trentacosta of UC Irvine finished with a perfect ninth and extended his scoreless streak as a reliever to 10 innings.

The Knights (26-14, 24-14 WCL) won for the 10th time in their last 12 games and stayed a game in front of Bend in the West Division. They also moved five games ahead of third-place Cowlitz; the top two teams in the division advance to the playoffs.

Red-hot Corey Moore drove in the first two runs with a two-out, fifth-inning single that extended his hitting streak to six games. He knocked in Kramer Scott and Matt Nylen, who started the inning with a single and a walk and moved up a base on Connor Hofmann's sacrifice bunt.

A rising senior at Pacific Lutheran, Moore is batting .409 (9-22) during his six-game hitting streak, with three doubles, a triple, a homer and seven RBIs. He has raised his average 25 points to .309 since July 15.

The Knights made it 3-0 in the seventh on a triple by Scott and Matt Nylen�s sacrifice fly. They scored their final run in the eighth when David Armendariz was hit by a pitch, stole second, went to third on a flyout and scored on Sean Myrom�s sacrifice fly.

Scott finished with two hits and two RBIs and also walked. Corey Davis had two hits.

Bellingham (18-18) scored 16 runs on 18 hits and won Monday's series opener 16-1. However, the Knights held them to one unearned run and eight hits over the final two games and won five of the six games between the teams this summer.

The Knights are idle Thursday. They resume WCL action at 6:40 p.m. Friday against Cowlitz at Goss Stadium. WCL all-star lefty Dylan Stuart (2-1, 0.95) is their projected starter.

Also, WCL president Ken Wilson announced Wednesday that pitchers Jace Fry of Corvallis and Jeff Gold of Cowlitz have been replaced on the West Division team for Tuesday�s All-Star Game at Goss Stadium by pitchers Max Beatty of the Knights and Stephen Ostapeck of Bend.

Fry and Gold are pitching this weekend and thus are not available on Tuesday. Beatty defeated Bellingham 3-1 on Tuesday night and is 5-1, 2.38 in seven starts.