Corvallis takes series opener

By Brooks Hatch
Gazette-Times reporter

Josh Osich hoped to use his summer with the Corvallis Knights to become a pitcher with polish and poise, not one with potential and promise.

His seven shutout innings on Friday night in a 7-0 victory over Bellingham were the latest example the sophomore left-hander is realizing that goal. Osich struck out 11, walked one and allowed just two hits for his fourth win without a loss.

Supported by two double plays, Osich threw an efficient 90 pitches and faced one hitter over the seven-inning minimum. His fastball ranged between 93 and 95 miles per hour; his change and breaking stuff kept the Bells (17-23) off-balance all night in a 2 hour, 15-minute masterpiece.

“Some nights you feel it, some nights you don’t, and the nights you don’t feel it you just have to get through it,” Osich said. “I felt really great, I was locating more tonight than other nights and didn’t just have to throw it by people.”

The Knights (29-11, 33-15) had four doubles and several other fly balls to the warning track in straightaway center while busting loose for 13 hits in the first game since their leading hitter, outfielder Logan Lotti, was lost for the season with an ankle injury.

Adam Melker had two hits and three RBIs, Billy Clontz three hits and Dean Green and Doug Cherry two apiece as Corvallis broke open a tight game with four runs in the seventh.

Osich lowered his ERA in West Coast Collegiate Baseball League games from 1.93 to 1.54. More importantly, his strikeout-to-walk ratio improved to 41-10, a dramatic turnaround from his freshman spring with the Beavers (19-26), when he was 0-2, with a 7.56 in 12 appearances split fairly evenly between starting and relief.

“I’ve made really big progress, gotten a lot better this summer,” he said.

An added bonus was the presence of OSU coach Pat Casey and new pitching coach Nate Yeskie in the Goss Stadium crowd of 1,053, the third-largest of the season and fourth-largest in franchise history.

“It’s nice to show them what I have, what we can work with, and what I can do better,” Osich said. “(Yeskie) likes what I’ve got. I talked to him (Thursday) about practice and things we’re going to work on. I really like him.”

Melker popped an RBI double off the left-field fence to send the Knights ahead 1-0 in the first and capped the four-run seventh with a two-run single to left. The Cal Poly junior from Claremont, Calif., has hit .387 in his last 10 games to nudge his average over .300 (.308) for the first time this summer, with four doubles, two homers and 12 RBIs.

“It’s baseball, you go through your ups and downs and right now, fortunately, I’m going through the ups,” he said. “Hopefully it goes through playoffs,” which start Tuesday night at Bend in the opener of the best-of-3 West Division championship series. “I’d really be happy about that.

“Lotti went down, he’s been our main guy the whole year. Tonight the whole lineup (hit), everybody stepped up and it was good to see that.”

A week ago Friday, Melker was in the emergency room of a Bend hospital getting eight stitches to close a deep laceration to his right forearm after being accidentally spiked on a play at the plate. He sat out the next two games, homered in his first game back and is hitting .462 in four games since the injury, with two doubles, a homer and six RBIs.

“It’s healed up pretty good,” he said. “(The cut) was actually in a good place, the skin doesn’t stretch too much, it’s not like it’s on my leg or a joint. Swinging and throwing are fine.”

That’s 180-degrees removed from what he thought when he first saw the cut, which team president Dan Segel said looked as if Melker’s arm had been sliced with a fillet knife.

“My initial feeling was, ‘I’d played 30 games, it looks like we’re going to the playoffs, and now it looks like I’m not going to be able to play,’ ” Melker said. “I was a little upset. But the doc said it should be good, and it has been.”

The series resumes at 6:35 p.m. today. Projected starters are ex-Beaver Tyrell Poggemeyer 6-1, 3.69) for the Bells and Jon Berger (3-0, 1.60) for the Knights.

Corvallis 7, Bellingham 0

BELLINGHAM 000 000 000 - 0 4 3

CORVALLIS 100 001 41x - 7 13 0

Chambers, Horsfall (7) and Chiarelli. Osich, Cusick (8), Stilley (9) and Burg, Anderson (9). WP: Osich (4-0). LP: Chambers (3-3). 2B: Locker (B), Cherry (C), Green (C), Melker (C), Johnson (C).

Hits: Bellingham 4 (Hennigs, C. Rankin, Locker, Fenton). Corvallis 13 (Clontz 3, Cherry 2, Green 2, Melker 2, Johnson, Stalker, Hogan, Bridges).

RBI: Bellingham 0. Corvallis 7 (Melker 3, Jiminez, Clontz, Green, Johnson).