Newest HarbourCats on a mission
UC-Davis quartet hopes to fine-tune their game and get Victoria into playoffs
It wasn’t lost on four new Victoria HarbourCats, all NCAA Div. 1 players from University of California-Davis, that 83 current or alumni West Coast League players were selected over the weekend in the 2016 MLB draft. Eight of those were from the HarbourCats.
“That is everyone’s goal who is here,” said pitcher Ryan Steindorf, as he took his first look around Royal Athletic Park on Monday, with UC-Davis Aggies teammates Blake Hannah, Ryan Anderson and Brad Pluschkell.
Hannah, also a pitcher, concurred: “We are all here to get ahead.”
The new HarbourCats (5-3) will make their debuts when Victoria opens a three-game set tonight at Royal Athletic against the Gresham GreyWolves (3-3) from suburban Portland.
The four were part of a youthful Aggies team that went 17-36 overall and 5-19 in conference this season.
“We had 12 freshman [including Hannah and Steindorf] and only three seniors, so there is a lot of optimism as our young group moves forward,” said infielder Pluschkell (.262 batting average), who, like slugging utility-player Anderson (.288), is entering his junior season.
All four have fallbacks if their baseball dreams don’t work out: Hannah is majoring in aerospace science and engineering, Steindorf in argi business, Anderson in communications and Pluschkell in mechanical engineering.
Most WCL teams have concentrated groupings of players from particular NCAA programs.
“It’s about building relationships,” said HarbourCats GM Brad Norris-Jones.
“For us, it’s UC-Davis, Long Beach State, Sacramento State, UCLA and Fresno State. [Victoria coach Graig Merritt] is developing these players. They are taking big strides here — just look at the MLB draft this weekend — and their NCAA coaches like that.”
Meanwhile, Victoria pushed its winning streak to five games by sweeping a doubleheader Sunday — 5-1 in extra innings and 8-5 — in Kelowna against the Falcons (5-3). Josh Mitchell, a second-year HarbourCats left-hander out of Pitt, set the table in the first game for reliever Holden Lyons to pick up the win. The first game was a contentious affair with Matt Warkentin of Victoria and two Falcons players ejected. All three were suspended for the second game, in which Casey Costello took the win, and Jarron Silva and Riley Guntrip smacked doubles.