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The Corvallis Knights are what every West Coast League baseball franchise aspires to be, or should.
Sustainability and facility are not issues.
The team鈥檚 namesake is sponsor Penny Knight, wife of Nike co-founder Phil Knight. The team plays at Goss Stadium, a venerable and tidy gem, which also hosts the NCAA Pac-12 Oregon State Beavers.
The Knights pedigree includes an MLB alumni list that counts Matt Duffy, Josh Osich and Andrew Susac of the Giants, Marc Rzepczynski of the Athletics, Chris Stewart of the Pirates, Matt Andriese of the Rays, Matt Boyd of the Tigers, Rocky Gale of the Padres, Bud Norris of the Dodgers, former Blue Jay Matt Hague, former White Sox infielder Brent Morel and the late Tommy Hanson of the Braves.
The Knights are 23-16 overall and won the WCL South Division first-half title to clinch a playoff berth.
The Victoria HarbourCats (29-10) did the same in the North Division, meaning Saturday's first meeting between the clubs in Corvallis was a potential preview of the league post-season final, although both clubs will have to get through a divisional playoff round against the respective North and South second-half champions.
The HarbourCats and Knights were tied 5-5 in extra innings at Goss Field to start the three-game set which continues today and Monday.
Saturday night鈥檚 game was in progress at press time after Corvallis rallied from a 5-2 deficit by scoring three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to tie the game.
That follows a recent pattern of Victoria being unable to button down games after building early leads.
The key offensive sequence for the HarbourCats came in the top of the sixth inning when Dakota Dean drove in P.J. Floyd to make it 3-1 and then Austin Guibor brought home Dean to extend that to 4-1.
Victoria started pitcher Josh Mitchell (5-0) and he went six complete innings.
鈥淚t's a battle of the first-half playoff clubs,鈥� said Mitchell.
鈥淐orvallis plays well. It plays small ball and we have to keep them off the base paths [this weekend],鈥�
Both clubs have levelled off in the second half as Victoria is 6-6 and Corvallis 5-7.
鈥淭hat's just baseball,鈥� said Mitchell, who is out of Pitt of the NCAA.
鈥淎fter a winning streak [19 games] like we had, things tend to [even out]. It just happens. It鈥檚 the way the sport is.鈥�
