Corvallis Knights
We head to Oregon State’s Goss Stadium, home of the collegiate national champion Beavers and the five-time defending West Coast League champs, the Corvallis Knights. We meet Knights President Bre Miller and chat on-air with long-time OSU broadcaster, Mike Parker.
Goss Stadium at Coleman Field is home to one of the best college baseball programs in the western United States: the Oregon State Beavers, winners of national championships in 2006, 2007, and 2018. It is also the home ballpark of the most dominant club in the collegiate West Coast League by far: the Corvallis Knights.
When we visited in the summer of 2022, Corvallis had won its division 12 times in the previous 14 seasons, claiming eight WCL titles, including the last five consecutive championships. Spoiler alert: The Knights won their sixth straight WCL crown in 2022.
As we waited for the gates at Goss to open, both of the team’s mascots — Mack the Knight and L’il King — made an appearance. Two Corvallis players also set up a table to sign autographs, one of many ways in which players would make themselves available to fans throughout the day.
The woman who has led the team’s front office for all of those consecutive championships is Knights President and Director of Business Development Bre Miller, who began working with the team as an intern in 2007 while pursuing a speech communications degree at Oregon State. In 2012, she was named general manager — the first female to hold the position in WCL history. The Corvallis Chamber of Commerce honored Miller’s outstanding work before the 2022 season, giving her its Robert C. Ingalls Business Person of the Year Award.
I had been connecting with Miller over Twitter, and she met us as the ballpark gates opened. She asked what we would like to drink and arrived soon after with beer bats for both of us (though Dad took a Diet Pepsi). We sat down and had a good chat about our journey and what we had seen of the WCL thus far before she left to attend to business.
Goss Stadium surrounds a field that was first used for baseball in 1907 and was later named Ralph Coleman Field for the head coach of the Oregon State team during three stints between 1923 and 1966. The stadium took its name in 1998 as a salute to John and Eline Goss, who donated $2.3 million towards its renovation.
The ballpark has just 15 rows of seating at its deepest points, making it a very cozy place to watch a ballgame. It officially seats 3,587, but the record attendance was set at 4,128 during an Oregon State-UCLA tilt earlier in the year.
As players warmed up on the field, a group of Knights on the third-base side played catch with fans.
Corvallis — back atop the WCL’s South Division — was set to take on the struggling Port Angeles Lefties, who would finish last in the North Division. A few weeks earlier, the Lefties had made big news with the signing of former Seattle Seahawks running back Golden Tate, who hit .329 in his sophomore year at Notre Dame and had been drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks out of high school. Tate did not travel with the team and would play just five games for the Lefties, collecting five hits in 22 at-bats.
The two head coaches joined the umpiring crew at home plate. The Lefties Matt Acker was the owner of the Kitsap BlueJackets collegiate team and president of the Puget Sound Collegiate League. He also owned a rental company; a Port Angeles restaurant called Roosevelt at the Wharf; and Whiskey Wagon, a “mobile bar.”
Knights head coach Brooke Knight — yes, that’s right, Knight coaches the Knights — joined Corvallis in 2008, leading the team to its first-ever WCL title. The Corvallis native and CEO of Knight Financial Home Loans hit .235 in 15 games in 1995 as a catcher with the Rookie League Helena Brewers. He later scouted for the Expos and Marlins and managed multiple teams in the Australian Baseball League in the winter, leading the Perth Heat to back-to-back ABL championships in 2012-13.
Corvallis started right-hander Joey Gartrell, a 6-foot-4 sophomore out of the University of Portland. He set the Lefties down in order in the first, notching two strikeouts. Port Angeles starter Hunter Kirkpatrick (San Diego City College) had a much rougher go of it, giving up four hits and three walks in the bottom of the first. The Knights were up 5-0 after one, and the game felt done already.
Kirkpatrick ran into more trouble in the third, allowing four more runs while hitting two batters. The Knights still had no extra-base hits, but they were up 9-0 after three.
Miller had an incredible surprise in store for Dad and me. She had arranged for us to chat on air with Oregon State broadcaster Mike Parker, who does play-by-play for the Knights. Parker has been the voice of the Beavers since 1999, calling football, baseball, and basketball games. His resume also includes spells as the play-by-play announcer for the Eugene Emeralds (1983-86) and the Triple-A Portland Beavers (1987-92).
Parker spent his childhood in Los Angeles and fell in love with Vin Scully. Dad and I both grew up in Southern California listening to and watching Dodger games, and we consider Scully to be the greatest baseball broadcaster ever. You can hear the influence and even a bit of Scully’s drawl as Parker works, shifting effortlessly from one topic to the next in an easy flow of baseball conversation. We marveled at his ability to interact with us, tell a story, call the game, and keep score simultaneously. An absolute pro.
Corvallis added two more runs in the bottom of the fifth to extend their lead to 11-0. Gartrell finished his outing, giving up just two hits in four innings. He was followed by a pair of relievers who held the Lefties to just one hit over the next four innings combined.
With two outs in the top of the ninth, Port Angeles collected a trio of singles to push across its only run. The Knights came away 11-1 winners.
After the game, kids ran the bases — and not just once before being directed back off the field or just getting to run from first to third. These kids ran the bases again and again, then ran into the outfield and across the infield in joyful abandon. Their families joined them.
Knights players stood in formation at the dugout, signing autographs. I had my beer bat signed by designated hitter Brady Lavoie, who had committed to my alma mater, San Diego State, for the 2023 season.
It was the most connection I had seen between a baseball team and its fans in one game, from signing autographs at the gate, to playing catch before the game, to a ceremonial first pitch involving eight Knights “catchers” simultaneously, to this happy post-game gathering. There was more to admire here than just the championships.