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Post from the Coast: The WCL on OSC

by Bruce Baskin
August 17, 2014 - West Coast League (WCL)


KNIGHTS TAKE EARLY TITLE SERIES LEAD WITH 4-3 WIN OVER BELLS

After hitting one home run during the regular season, LF Scott Quinlan (UC Santa Barbara) picked a most opportune time to hit his first roundtripper of the postseason.

Noted more for his speed after swiping 18 bases in 34 regular season contests while batting .280, Quinlan erased a two-run Corvallis deficit with one decisive swing as the Knights went on to hold off the Bellingham Bells, 4-3, Friday night in Oregon, copping Game One of the West Coast League's championship series.

Corvallis grabbed an early 1-0 advantage when CF Grant Melker (San Diego) led off the game with a single against Bells starting pitcher Zach Johnson (Edmonds CC), advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by C Dane Lund (Oregon St) and came around to score on a double by 1B Dalton Kelly (UC Santa Barbara).

The two clubs swapped zeros in the second before Bellingham scored twice in the top of the third. With one out, 2B Dustin Breshears (Gonzaga) sliced a double and moved to third on 3B Dallas Carroll's (Utah) single. 1B Scott Heath (Maine) then drilled another two-bagger off Corvallis ace P Jackson Lockwood (Portland) to send both Breshears and Carroll across the dish to make it a 2-1 Bells lead.

Bellingham stretched their advantage and chased Lockwood one frame later. Lockwood, who went 8-2 in the regular season to tie a league record for wins, had one out in the fourth before allowing a single to 1B Lou Della Fera (Maine). Della Fera took second on a wild pitch to the next batter, C Eric Webber (Georgetown), who saw the count go to 1-2 before lacing a single that allowed Della Fera to move to third. With runners at the corner again, this time it was RF Nate Anderson (Bellevue CC) to get a clutch hit with a single that plated Della Fera. Anderson, batting ninth, got his first hit of the postseason and sent Lockwood to the showers. P Justin Calomeni (Cal Poly-SLO), who got the win out of the bullpen in Thursday's semi-clinching victory over Bend, came in and ended the inning without further damage.

Trailing 3-1, the Knights responded in the bottom of the fourth when Kelly led off with a walk and 2B Marc Gallegos (Corban) followed with a single, sending Kelly to third. After 3B Kevin Kline (Dixie St) popped out to first, Quinlan stepped in against Johnson in search of his first hit of the game and second safety of the postseason. Quinlan turned on Johnson's first offering and sent it sailing beyond the wall for a three-run homer to put Corvallis ahead by a 4-3 count.

From that point on, it was all pitching and defense for both sides as each team could only muster singles in their respective halves of the fifth inning the rest of the way as the Knights held on for the victory in a fast-paced game that took just 2 hours, 20 minutes to play. Calomeni got his second playoff win in three nights after just securing one triumph the entire regular season with 4.2 innings of scoreless, one-hit pitching for Corvallis. Johnson absorbed the loss for the Bells after letting in all four Knight runs on five hits over 4.2 entradas, striking out seven batsmen along the way. Bellingham outhit Corvallis by an 8-5 margin, with all but one Bell swinger getting a safety in front of a gathering of 706 at Goss Stadium.

The best-of-three series now shifts to Bellingham for Game Two on Sunday. The Bells had originally planned on spending the entire set in Corvallis due to pending work on Joe Martin Field, but the City of Bellingham agreed to hold off until the pennant matchup could be played.

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