Corvallis Gazette-Times

Corvallis baseball fans will have some new Boys of Summer to support in 2007.

The Aloha Knights of the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League have moved the franchise to Corvallis and will play their games at Goss Stadium, club president Dan Segel announced Wednesday. The team will be called the Corvallis Knights.

"(Corvallis) is a great baseball town," said Segel, a co-founder of the franchise, which was established in 1990. "It's actually an extraordinary baseball town, thanks in a large part to the efforts of Richey's Market and the Beavers.

"Both are community institutions and elite amateur programs. We've admired and respected their leaders for many years, and were attracted to Corvallis long before considering this move."

The WCCBL is an eight-team, wooden-bat league with franchises in Bend; Spokane, Wenatchee, Kitsap, Moses Lake and Bellingham, Wash.; and Kelowna, British Columbia. Rosters consist of college players.

The Knights are scheduled to open their 54-game season on June 7 with a nonleague encounter with the Southern Oregon RiverDogs in Medford. The home opener is June 14 against the Bend Elks. There will be 26 home games and 42 league games; tickets are $6 for adults, $4 for children and seniors.

"Our goal is to bring the community together at the ballpark," Segel said. "Fans can expect a full slate of entertaining promotions, tasty dogs and cold beer, and some good old-fashioned wood-bat baseball."

Familiar faces will abound, as 37 former or current Beavers have played with the Knights, including Kevin Gunderson and Bill Rowe, stars of OSU's 2006 NCAA champions; current Beavers Daniel Turpen, Erik Ammon, Brett Casey and Blake Keitzman, and ex-stars Mike Thurman, Kevin Hooker, Joe Gerber, Andrew Checketts and Andy Jenkins.

The Knights played at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham the past seven years. Penny Knight, the wife of Nike CEO Phil Knight, is the team sponsor.

Former Crescent Valley/Richey's Market/Oregon State player Brooke Knight (no relation to Penny Knight) is the acting general manager.

OSU coach Pat Casey said he was "thrilled" to share Goss Stadium with the Knights.

"They are a first-class organization and are going to put on a great show," Casey said. "We are pleased to partner with a like-minded group like the Knights.

"I'm confident they will enrich our community and better baseball here and in the Willamette Valley."

Sixty-eight Knights have gone on to play professional baseball. They won the 70th National Baseball Congress World Series in 2004 with a team that featured Gunderson, Jenkins and ex-Beaver Nate Fogle.

"Corvallis is the perfect place for a team like the Knights," Brooke Knight said. "Being a native, I think the community will enjoy coming out to Goss in the summer. My sense is they are going to embrace what we have to offer, which is really more about community than sport."

The team's Web site, www.corvallisknights.com, is under construction. For more information on the WCCBL, visit www.wccbl.com. A complete 2007 schedule will be on the new Web site shortly, but is now available at www.alohaknights.com/schedule.html