Taylor Ard enjoys a red-hot start with the Corvallis Knights

CORVALLIS - The baseball rocketed through the night air and sailed over the left-field fence at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds and Special Event Center in a matter of seconds.

Taylor Ard had struck again.

"That was the most impressive swing of many impressive swings this summer," Corvallis Knights play-by-play announcer Mike Parker said Wednesday night, moments after a home run he described as a "bullet" became the Knights' lone run in their epic, 16-innings-and-change 1-1 standoff with the Kitsap BlueJackets.

Not everything the 6-foot-2, 225-pounder squares up on is hit quite so hard or goes quite as far as his second homer of the season. But West Coast League pitchers are quickly learning what their Northwest Athletic Association of Community College counterparts discovered this spring, when Ard parlayed a .490 average and 12 homers as an underrecruited Mt. Hood Community College freshman into a scholarship at Oregon State.

The kid can hit.

Ard went 2-for-5 against Kitsap and his average actually dropped, to .444. His .722 slugging percentage is nearly 300 points higher than any other Knight. His four doubles, two homers and 12 RBIs are also team-bests.

"I always have high expectations for myself and no matter where I play I expect myself to do well," the 19-year-old said Thursday. "Playing in this league, there's a little better competition and it's more respected" than the NWAACC, a wood-bat league of teams from Oregon and Washington.

"I'm happy with how I'm doing so far, but it's still early."

Ard hopes to repeat his power stroke at 6:35 tonight in the opener of a three-game WCL series against Bellingham at Goss Stadium.

The Bells' pitching could be the ticket. Ard was 6-for-11 with four doubles and five RBIs in a three-game set at Bellingham on June 12-14, helping him earn WCL player of the week honors.

"Taylor has been a great addition," Knights' coach Brooke Knight said. "His pop has opened a few eyes in our league, but more importantly, he refuses to give in at the plate."

Ard was the NWAACC player of the year after his monster season. His .490 average smashed Saints' hitting coach Darold Ellison's 28-year-old school record, and he added 12 homers, 49 RBIs and an .848 slugging percentage.

"I've always been able to hit the ball pretty hard, but this past year, going to a wood bat and hitting for power like I did, was surprising," Ard said. "But I always try to work hard, lift weights and do everything I can to get that extra bit out on the field.

"It's kind of surprising, but I've worked to get where I am."

Ard was a three-year starter, three-year all-star and two-time second-team all-stater at Prairie High in Vancouver, Wash. But he attracted little Division I attention so he headed to Mt. Hood.

Ard said he didn't play with a chip on his shoulder this past spring and try to prove a point to the home-state schools that snubbed him.

"I don't like to hold grudges or anything. I want to do the best I can, wherever I am," he said. "To do well (at Mt. Hood) and to have people see me there kind of felt good. They kind of realized they made a mistake" by not recruiting him harder.

"But it wasn't all about trying to prove people wrong. It was more about doing well for my own sake."