Knights streaking through summer

Large winning streak has been full of team, individual highlights for Corvallis Knights

By: Casey Grogan

Posted: 7/1/09

Ever since the Corvallis Knights season began, the goal has been simple - repeat.
Last season the Corvallis pitching staff and defense dominated the West Coast League on their way to a championship series victory over the Wenatchee AppleSox. This year, while the season is still very young, the Knights are putting themselves in a position to match up once again with the AppleSox in the 2009 version of the league championship.
"This team is different," said Knights head coach Brooke Knight. "The quality of the characters is good. It is still early and this game will humble you quickly, so we don't want to get too excited. It is nice to get out of the gates strong and put ourselves in the position to be successful at the end of the summer."
On June 18, the Knights began an incredible string of home games starting with the Portland Ports. The string of games stretches through this Friday night with games being played every single night, making Goss Stadium the home of 16 straight baseball games. Prior to the home stand, Corvallis had played nine straight and will head to Bend for two games on Saturday and Sunday.
The first break in the season will come on July 6, when Corvallis takes a nearly 550-mile bus ride from Bend to Kelowna, British Columbia. More impressive than the 27-straight games of baseball is how the Knights have performed over the stretch.
Corvallis has lit up the win column, and as of Monday's 11-1 victory over the Spokane RiverHawks, have won 14 straight games. Prior to winning the 14th game, Corvallis had already snapped the franchise record when they touched up the Moses Lake Pirates to win their 13th straight.
The streak has included three shutouts performances by the Knights pitching staff, all coming in WCL action. The first shutout came in Silverdale, Wash., when a trio of Knights shut down the Kitsap BlueJackets.
The second shutout came in a 7-0 victory over the Bellingham Bells in Corvallis. The game was the summer home debut of Oregon State freshman All-American Sam Gaviglio. The Ashland, Ore., native struck out seven in six innings before Eric Young and Dylan Jones relieved him.
Perhaps most impressive was the 5-0 win over the winless Moses Lake Pirates. Starting pitcher Matt Andriese of UC Riverside spun a complete-game three hitter, striking out nine Pirates hitters and walking none.
"This was only my second start of the summer and the first one was kind of decent," Andriese said after the game. "This start I felt really comfortable. I had a lot of time between starts and I just wanted to come out and pound strikes. I wanted to play to the wood bat and make them swing early."
The performance earned Andriese honors as the West Coast League Player of the Week, the second of the season for the Knights after Oregon State-bound Taylor Ard earned the honors during week one of the season.
Andriese and the rest of the pitching staff have been benefactors of the top defensive team in the league. The Knights have only made ten errors as of June 29.
"We have the core back from last year," said returning Knights infielder Josh Hogan. "That has kind of spread to everybody and this team really gels together."
During the 14-game winning streak, many individual Knights have had streaks of their own. Outfielder John Desmarais went on a seven-game hitting streak, while Brent Warren extended his streak to seven games on Monday. Western Oregon's Billy Clontz surpassed a five-game streak from earlier in the season with his six-game streak through Monday night.
At the plate, two of the top hitters in the league wear Knights across their chest. Ard and infielder Richie Jimenez lead the squad in hitting, while Clontz leads the league in runs scored. Outfielder Pat Colwell of San Diego State is one of the top players in the RBI category.
Pitchers Dustin Emmons and Gaviglio have the lowest ERA's in the WCL.
"Last year we had a lot of power pitchers," said Liam Baron, a holdover from last years championship team. "This year we have a lot of guys with great control who get the job done. Our offense comes through all the time. Being out there all the time, we have confidence that if we give up three runs our offense is going to bounce back and out-score the other team."
Not ready to put the season in cruise control, Team President Dan Segel recently made the acquisition of pitcher Tyler Anderson. The ace of the Oregon Ducks pitching staff earlier in the spring, Anderson will have strong support from his offense in Corvallis as the Knights currently lead the league in hitting.
"This pitching staff is already pretty good," Hogan said of adding his Oregon teammate. "He is just going to make it better, having another arm out there ready to go. He has really good stuff and a good mentality."
The Knights continue their massive streak of home games tonight in game three of a series with the RiverHawks. Thursday they play host to the Portland Lobos and meet the Bend Elks on Friday. Corvallis will be sent off on the road in style Friday night, when after the game there will be the first fireworks show of the year.
Corvallis hosts Spokane tonight at 6:35 p.m. and Portland at 6:35 Thursday. Friday night's game will begin at 7:05 p.m., with fireworks beginning right after the final out.

Casey Grogan, sports editor
sports@dailybarometer.com