The WCL South Division Championship is set! The Ridgefield Raptors will take on the Corvallis Knights tonight at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field.
The Raptors have faced the Knights six times in the last two weeks, first in Corvallis and last week in Ridgefield. The Knights took two of three in both series, but the Raptors won both of their games in dramatic fashion.
The Raptors’ lone win in Corvallis came on the heels of Bo Rico’s game-tying RBI double off the right-center field wall in the bottom of the eighth inning, followed by RBI singles from Rico and Brayden Oram (Metro State Denver) to lift the Raptors to a 9-6 win.
In the regular-season finale on August 5, the Raptors outdueled the Knights 18-15 in a slugfest. Zach Wadas tied the game with a pinch-hit two-run single in the seventh, then walked it off with a three-run homer in the 11th.
Corvallis clinched the top seed in the WCL South thanks to an 18-9 second-half record after starting the season 13-14. The Knights eliminated the Sweets with a 9-6 win Sunday night in Game Three of the WCL South Semifinals.
When the Raptors squared off against the Pickles in Game One of the divisional series, it was Portland who came out ahead with a 10-6 victory. In Game Two, the Raptors were down to their final strike, trailing 10-9 in the bottom of the ninth, with an 0-2 count to Braden Watson (Evansville). B-Watt crushed his eighth homer of the season to force a decisive Game Three.
Portland built a 7-3 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth inning before Watson slammed a three-run bomb to center field to make it 7-6.
The Raptors cashed in on a three-run error by Pickles shortstop Elijah McNeal and a solo home run by Reagan McCluskey to power a five-run bottom of the sixth and take the lead, 11-7.
JT Summers (Oregon) homered in the eighth inning, and Ridgefield cruised to a 12-8 win to eliminate Portland.
The WCL South Championship starts tonight at 6:35 p.m. PT in Corvallis and can be streamed on the Corvallis Knights YouTube channel.