Bells put in extra effort to upend HarbourCats
Victoria starting pitcher Will McAffer was ringing up those Bells like Sunday at church and the HarbourCats looked to be in absolute cruise control.
But the whiplash twists in baseball can be as sudden as they are cruel. That was shown in ample fashion Thursday night at Royal Athletic Park as the Bellingham Bells scored five runs in the top of the 10th inning to shock the HarbourCats 8-3 in West Coast League action in front of 2,004 fans.
This was after McAffer unhittable after seven innings with nine strikeouts, allowing only two base runners. The Cincinnati Reds draft pick got a little help from his friends, namely left-fielder A.J. Alcantara, who leaped and got his glove over the fence to take away from David Banuelos what looked to be a sure home run to end the seventh inning.
Bellingham finally touched McAffer with a base hit with none out in the eighth inning but it looked like no big deal. Then came the shockingly sudden change of fortune in a game that had been going along so smoothly for the hosts.
Victoria reliever Holden Lyons was victimized by a three-run Matt Delio homer in the eighth inning which suddenly leveled the game 3-3. The Bells loaded the bases later in the eighth yet Lyons got out of the jam. But the sky eventually collapsed on the ’Cats ace reliever.
“That was rough,” said McAffer, 4-2 after the no decision.
“We put in a good effort but couldn’t quite finish it.”
Lyons, who gave up all the Bells runs, has been Victoria’s best reliever on the season. Victoria head coach Graig Merritt took responsibility for the three-run homer that tied it, because of the pitch call he sent in.
“I sent in the wrong pitch [for the situation]. That was on me, not him [Lyons],” said Merritt.
“Lyons has been lights out this season. And what can you say about McAffer? He had a couple of rough starts coming into this game but we are proud of the way he pitched tonight.”
Victoria started an all-Canadian battery of pitcher McAffer from North Vancouver and catcher Riley Guntrip of Camrose, Alta.
Alcantara had two hits to go with his catching theatrics.
Bellingham starter Spencer Howard was consistently reaching speeds of 90-plus miles per hour, topping out at 94 mph, but Victoria bats were unperturbed with six hits and three runs against Howard over five full innings.
Victoria got off to a fortuitous start in the bottom of the first inning. A two-out fly ball flubbed in the outfield by Bellingham, off the bat of Austin Guibor, resulted in two runs scored for Victoria and Guibor on second base. A twoout RBI double by Brad Plushkell made it 3-0 in the fourth inning.
The ’Cats and Bells close out their three-game set tonight at Royal Athletic. Bellingham won the opener 5-3 on Wednesday.