Posted: Friday, June 15, 2007 12:00 am
Wyckoff delivers RBI single as Corvallis knocks off Bend
By Kevin Hampton
Gazette-Times reporter
Fans had to wait until the eighth inning for the Corvallis Knights to score their first run at Goss Stadium, but the wait was worthwhile.
Matt Wyckoff lined a hit up the middle to score Josh Hogan and give the Knights a 1-0 lead over the Bend Elks that held up for the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League West Division win.
It was the Knights' (5-2) first game and win in Corvallis, their home-opener and the first of a three-game series against the Elks (2-2). The teams play the second game today at 7:05 p.m.
The Knights struggled to get on base against Bend pitcher Paul Dickey all evening, but Hogan looped a single into left field to get on with one away in the eighth.
When catcher Ryan Scott couldn't get his mitt up in time to snag a high pitch, Hogan took second and gave the Knights the runner in scoring position they were looking for and Wyckoff was ready to get his third hit of the game.
"We got on second on the passed ball, which is pretty clutch, and at that point all I needed was a single," Wyckoff said. "Just make sure that I get my foot down, stay balanced and hit it anywhere, wherever he pitches it."
Wyckoff got a fastball and jumped on it. He said he hit it on the barrel, but broke the bat anyway. Nevertheless, the ball went through the infield and Hogan scored as the crowd of 358 cheered.
Wyckoff said he was happy with the fan turnout, particularly with the Oregon State baseball team in Omaha, Neb., for the College World Series.
"I think we'll get more people here, too, once Oregon State hopefully wins the World Series again," he said. "So I think we'll get more fans, but tonight was a good crowd. I enjoyed it. It was good to have them."
The fans watched a pitcher's duel between starters Dickey and JR Murphy for most of the game.
Dickey forced a lot of groundouts and struck out five in eight innings. Murphy finished with eight strikeouts, six coming in the first six innings. He had two in the seventh, but was starting to run out of gas and gave up a single and walk as the Elks loaded the bases with two outs, sparking a visit to the mound by manager Matt Dorey.
"I went out and talked to JR and I knew he was tired," Dorey said. "He was right at his pitch count and I had a left-hander ready to go and just I went out there and asked him how he felt and he said he was tired, but he had one more left in him. He pitched up to that point and I wanted to give him an opportunity to battle out of that thing and he proved me right and proved himself right."
Corvallis 1, Bend 0
BEND 000 000 000 n 0 8 0
CORVALLIS 000 000 01x n 1 5 1
Dickey and Scott. Murphy, Brunner (8) and Gale. WP: Brunner. LP: Dickey. 2B: Pearl (B).
Hits: Bend 8 (Scott 2, Poppert 2, Anderson, Cejka, Georges, Pearl). Corvallis 5 (Wyckoff 3, Cruikshank, Hogan)
RBI: Corvallis 1 (Wyckoff)