The West Coast League’s Ridgefield Raptors are back at the Ridgefield Outdoor Recreation Complex, with 32 home games on the schedule this spring and summer, starting with a game Thursday, May 28

Paul Valencia
Clark County Today

Now in its seventh season and eighth year, the Ridgefield Raptors baseball franchise has become a tradition of Clark County baseball, of Clark County summer nights.

That tradition returns Thursday night with the opening of the 2026 season.

Oh, it will be a different kind of Opening Night for the Raptors.

Their usual first-game opponent? That franchise is on a pause.

The Columbia River Cup, a season-long series with the rivals from Cowlitz County that usually starts with the first game of the season? Not happening.

Instead, the Raptors will open their season against a team that is not in their league — the Northwest Stars Academy — on Thursday night at the Ridgefield Outdoor Recreation Complex.

Still, it’s baseball. And that is what matters to Raptors fans in Ridgefield and throughout Southwest Washington.

“The partnership continues to grow and continues to spread through word of mouth and past experience,” said Gus Farah, general manager of the Raptors. “The relationships with the city and the school district have been solid. Not only were they thinking forward when they built the ballpark, it actually came to fruition. We have a facility that is fun to watch a game in, easy to watch a game.”

Ridgefield Public Schools shares the fields at the RORC. Come late May and into summer, the anchor of the complex is the West Coast League baseball team. The WCL is a wood-bat league for players who have college eligibility. Some of the top college baseball players in the country come to the region to play more than 60 games in a professional-like schedule, with six games a week.

This season, the Raptors are set for 32 home games.

Last year, the team averaged 1,300 fans a game, with five games that saw more than 2,000 spectators.

“Early June is always a bit of a challenge because of the weather and school is still in,” Farah said. “Once we get into the middle of June, it picks up.”

New at the park this year is a better sound system for the group seating beyond left field, plus a new scoreboard. In the past, those sitting beyond left field had no scoreboard in their view.

Also, the food truck stationed beyond left field has been rebranded to the Rally Wagon, named after the Raptors’ mascot. On most days, it will sell pork, chicken, red beans, and rice. On Saturdays, through a promotion with Chick-fil-A, it will sell chicken sandwiches. Also, every fan who attends a game on Saturdays will receive a coupon for a free Chick-fil-A sandwich on their way out of the ballpark.What is not new is the leadership on the field.

Chris Cota, the only head coach the Raptors have known, is back in the dugout, along with top assistant Nick Allen. Cota is the head coach at College of the Canyons in southern California. Allen, the head coach of the Ridgefield High School team, has been with the Raptors for years, as well.

“It gives us a lot of comfort. We know that they will run the season with the culture and the expectation that the organization has because they have done it every year,” Farah said. “Nick is obviously known in the community, but Chris is, too, now.”

There is a new opponent for the opener, though. In the past, the Raptors played the Cowlitz County Black Bears in a non-league opener and then would play six more times in league play. It was a series within a season, the Columbia River Cup, with the team winning the most games getting the Cup for the year.

The Black Bears, though, are on a hiatus for the 2026 season, looking to relocate.

Instead, the Raptors play that first non-league game against the Northwest Stars, a team with several small-college baseball standouts.

Come Friday, it will be time for WCL play.

The Raptors will have games Friday, Saturday, and Sunday against the Nanaimo Nightowls, traveling to Ridgefield from British Columbia. The Raptors will be off Monday, then return to the RORC Tuesday for a three-game series against the Yakima Valley Pippins.

For tickets and more information on the team, including the current roster, go to: https://ridgefieldraptors.com/