Written by Raptors Broadcaster Patrick McColl
After a split week on the road and at home, the Ridgefield Raptors are ready for two new opponents in the South Division of the West Coast League (WCL). Starting Tuesday, the Raptors begin a series against the Corvallis Knights before three road games against the Portland Pickles.
Ridgefield played the Victoria HarbourCats this past weekend and beat the Cats on Sunday, 7-2. The Raptors played the Knights in a series earlier in the year and lost by just one run in each game at Goss Stadium.
On Sunday, Raptors power hitter Noah Karliner hit his 12th home run of the season. Karliner is second in the WCL in home runs and two home runs away from tying the Raptors single season record. New Hampshire Fisher Cats catcher Jacob Sharp hit 14 home runs for the Raps in 2022.
Reliever Dylan Richardson pitched another scoreless outing against the HarbourCats, hurling two innings on Sunday. Richardson struck out two batters and holds a 3.06 ERA this summer.
Corvallis is 20-10 this season, and 3-0 in the second half. The Knights are riding into the series on an eight-game win streak, and the club swept the Bend Elks over the weekend.
The Knights offense is paced by the infield. Gavin Brubaker (Northwest Nazarene) and Maddox Riske (Southern California) are tied for first on the team with 29 hits. Riske has 18 RBI and 10 more walks than strikeouts.
Nebraska native JShawn Unger leads Corvallis in innings pitched (25.2). The right-hander won Friday night’s game against Bend, allowing just one run in six innings. Portland’s Trey Newmann leads Corvallis in strikeouts (34).
All three games in the series against Corvallis will begin at 6:35 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Fans can go to ridgefieldraptors.com to purchase tickets to the home series against Corvallis at the RORC. The live stream to watch or listen to the games against Corvallis will be available on ridgefieldraptors.com/stream. #GoRaps