AppleSox Fall In Extra Innings Again To Knights

Hunter Gibson tossed five shutout innings in relief but the AppleSox fell to the Corvallis Knights, 8-4, in 12 innings on Sunday afternoon at Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium. 

The AppleSox and Knights went to extra innings for the second time in the last three days and it was Corvallis again picking up the victory to earn the series victory. The Knights opened up the weekend with a 7-5 win in 10 innings on Friday and captured the series with a five-run top of the 12th on Sunday.

Enzo Apodaca and Cole Miller led the AppleSox with a pair of multi-hit games. Apodaca briefly gave the AppleSox the lead with a 2-RBI single in the bottom of the second after Corvallis scored in the top of the first. Wenatchee’s lead was short-lived as it surrendered a two-run homer in the top of the third to give the Knights a 3-2 lead.

Gibson came on in the fourth and dominated in his longest outing of the summer, striking out six and only allowed one hit and one walk. The AppleSox tied the game up in bottom of the sixth when Michael Davinni watched with his third walk of the day, stole second and then scored after back-to-back groundouts.

Neither team was able to manage a run until the Knights’ outburst in the top of the 12th but both nearly go scored go-ahead runs in previous innings. Apodaca singled with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and then Brandham Ponce hit a deep drive to left field that landed at the base off the wall right next to the foul pole. Head coach Mitch Darlington sent Apodaca around third as left fielder Briley Knight was picking up the baseball and a perfect relay from left field to shortstop Spencer Scott to catcher Tyler Quinn was a step ahead of Apodaca’s slide.

Corvallis nearly scored the go-ahead run an inning before winning the game. With a runner at second base and one out a ground ball to the left side of the second base bag was bobbled by shortstop Aiva Arquette and Knights head coach Brooke Knight sent runner Kiko Romero around third home but Arquette recovered to throw a strike to catcher Ezra Samperi to retire Romero and end the inning.

Wenatchee is off Monday but wraps up the eight-game homestand with a big three-game set against the Kamloops NorthPaws. The NorthPaws and AppleSox had the second and fourth-best overall records in the North Division entering Sunday night’s games and would both qualify for the playoffs. All three games begin at 6:35 p.m. and tickets can be purchased at saferseating.com.

Listen to the latest edition of the AppleSox Podcast for a recap of the game, highlights and a pregame interview with Riley Sinclair. Subscribe to the AppleSox Podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.