Knights’ bats bury HarbourCats
The Victoria HarbourCats didn’t have a prayer on Faith Night.
The West Coast League team used the U.S.-style baseball promotion to attract 1,267 fans to Royal Athletic Park on Wednesday night.
The assembled should have looked to the heavens and hoped for rain. Instead it rained hits for the Corvallis Knights, 14 of them, in a 12-4 victory by the Oregon team. The defending WCL-champion Knights, again a factor, are 11-6 on the season. The HarbourCats fell back to level at 9-9 as traction has been hard to establish in the 2017 season after Victoria won a league-record 40 games and lost only 14 last season.
“It was an ugly game,” said rookie Victoria head coach Brian McRae.
“We elevated the ball and missed the strike zone and they hit it. But it means nothing if we come back and win the third game [tonight],” added the 10-year former major-leaguer.
Victoria won the first game of the three-game set 4-2 on Tuesday night. But it was a different tale Wednesday as Victoria starter Ethan Skuija received a rude welcome to the contest as Dillan Shrum of Corvallis unloaded a two-run homer in the first inning and Tony Claunch a solo shot in the second inning.
The HarbourCats remained in hailing distance, trailing 4-3 following four innings, before a tworun Matt Kelly triple in the fifth inning was the turning-point blast for Corvallis.
Davis Wendzel was the best of the ’Cats with three hits and an RBI.
“We just need to swing and be aggressive and we’ll get it back [in the rubber match tonight],” said the NCAA Div. 1 Baylor Bears player.
Wendzel’s flowing locks have become a distinctive feature of the HarbourCats season. At Baylor they even have their own hashtag handle: “mullet-power.”
The HarbourCats could use some more of that mullett power through the rest of the season.
The HarbourCats conclude their three-game set tonight at Royal Athletic Park against the Knights before beginning another three-gamer against the Walla Walla Sweets on Friday evening.
ROUNDING THE CORNERS: If you want to play an old-fashioned game of scrub, the HarbourCats will allow you to do that on their diamond Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ahead of the Walla Walla game. All comers are welcome to play. “People ask us all the time what it’s like to play on that field. This is their chance to find out,” said Jim Swanson, the team co-owner and manager partner of the Cats.