Raptors hoping for big crowd at Saturday’s home playoff game

The Ridgefield Raptors are hoping for a big crowd Saturday night at their home playoff game against Corvallis. Win or lose for the Raptors, it is likely their last home game of the West Coast League season. Photo by Mike Schultz

The Ridgefield Raptors have made the postseason for the fourth consecutive season in the West Coast League

Paul Valencia
ClarkCountyToday.com

The Ridgefield Raptors are making this a habit.

This summer marks four years in a row of making the playoffs.

And this summer might have been the most satisfying of the playoff runs because no one saw this coming in late June.

The Raptors went from six games below .500 in the first half of the West Coast League standings to 14 games above .500 and a second-place finish in the second-half standings to make it to the playoffs.

As the No. 4 seed from the South Division, the Raptors will take on No. 1 Corvallis in a best-of-three series. The first game is in Ridgefield, Saturday, Aug. 10, at 6:35 p.m.

Game 2 will be in Corvallis on Sunday, and Game 3, if necessary, is Monday, also in Corvallis.

The West Coast League’s playoff format ensures every playoff team has at least one home game, but the format also calls for just one-game playoffs after the first round. As the No. 4 seed, it is likely that this will be the Raptors final home of the season.

Gus Farah, the team’s general manager, said he is hoping for more than 1,500 people to show up Saturday night at the Ridgefield Outdoor Recreation Complex. It gives the Raptors and their fans one last chance to celebrate the season in Clark County.

The RORC, he said, “just continues to be a great gathering place.”

And a place for a lot of winning baseball through the years.

Farah acknowledged the team had to reevaluate the roster after the first few weeks of this season. Coaches and administrators saw that there were some prized players who still had not arrived for the wood-bat summer league. Everyone had to be patient.

“It was scary,” Farah said.

He also gave a lot of credit to the coaching staff, particularly head coach Chris Cota, the only coach in Raptors history.

“What it required was a calm hand to not panic,” Farah said. “He knows that long stretches of winning streaks can push you to the top.His calmness got us through the rough waters. Once the waters calmed we were in a better position to make a move.”

As far as off the field, the Raptors team of crew members at the complex has been getting better and better through the years, the GM said. The Raptors are looking forward to one more Saturday night with their fans, at a home playoff game.

Saturday’s first pitch is 6:35 p.m. For ticket information, go to: https://ridgefieldraptors.com/