Fox helps ’Cats claw Falcons in opener

Not to jinx it, but is this bringing back West Coast League-version echoes of the 1969 Mets, or something like that?

The Victoria HarbourCats, teetering several times before finally clinching a playoff berth on the final day of the season Monday, have taken a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three North Division final against the Kelowna Rockets after capturing the opening game 8-2 before 1,720 fans Tuesday night at Royal Athletic Park.

“It’s been a crazy ending with a depleted roster,” said Victoria head coach Brian McRae, a 10-season major leaguer, who has just about seen it all in his career.

“We got new life Monday [when Corvallis defeated Wenatchee to allow Victoria to slip into the playoffs]. And we found a way to win tonight.”

And by using a Lambrick Park Secondary pitcher from the Victoria Eagles junior team, Mike Musselwhite, to mop up in the final two innings.

“This is crazy. There are no words to [describe] it,” said Musselwhite, a late-season addition, about his unlikely journey to be pitching against NCAA Div. 1 players in the WCL, as a mere 17-year-old.

Ethan Fox got Victoria out of a bases-loaded situation with the score tied 2-2 earlier in the game and just when the Falcons looked as if they could blow the game open. Fox finished with four scoreless innings to collect his first win.

Back-to-back, two-out homers in the bottom of the sixth inning by Harrison Bragg, with a tworun shot, and D.J. Porter’s solo staked Victoria to a 6-2 lead.

Bragg went through a playoff run over the spring when his Mississippi State team went deep into the NCAA playoffs before falling one step short of the College World Series.

“You just try to make it feel normal and keep doing the things you always do,” said Bragg.

The HarbourCats are at Elks Stadium in Kelowna tonight for Game 2. The third game, if needed, will also be played in the Okanagan on Thursday. The ’Cats are expected to start Blake Hannah (2-2) of UC-Davis tonight, with Adam McKillican (5-3) from UBC and the Comox Valley set for a possible Game 3.

But with a bereft bullpen, that still managed to hold Kelowna to four hits Tuesday, who knows what this group, that seems held together by scotch tape, can do tonight?

Split seasons can be strange beasts. After winning the first half at 17-10, the Falcons pretty much coasted through the second half of the season at 11-16 for 28-26 overall, which is only fourth-best in the division. The format left the team with the best overall record in the division, the Bellingham Bells at 31-23, out of the playoffs.

The HarbourCats (29-25 overall) and Bells finished tied in the second half at 15-12 but Victoria held the tiebreaker — a better second-half, in-division winning percentage — over Bellingham.

In the South Division playoffs, the first-half and league overall regular-season champion Corvallis Knights (34-20) fell 9-3 to the South’s second-half representative Pippins in the Yakima Valley. The second and third games are in Corvallis, Oregon, tonight and if required Thursday.

The best-of-three WCL final will feature the winners of the North and South divisional playoffs in a best-of-three series.