WCL Victoria HabourCats

HarbourCats Walk off with Clark's Walk

Published on August 3, 2014 under West Coast League (WCL)
Victoria HabourCats News Release


It's not the most exciting play in baseball, but it did the trick.

West Coast League home run leader Gabe Clark didn't blast another bomb to win Saturday's game with the Bellingham Bells -- he watched four pitches sail wide of the plate from reliever David Bigelow, and with nowhere to put Clark because the bases were loaded, the winning run crossed in a 6-5 win for the homestanding Victoria HarbourCats, in a game played in front of 1,336 at Sports Traders Diamond.

The 11-inning win improves the HarbourCats to 22-25 on the season and 10-13 at home. Bellingham, who has a playoff spot locked up, is 32-14, still the best record in the league. The HarbourCats are five games out of the wild card spot with seven games remaining.

The two teams play again on Sunday afternoon, a 1pm start that is Island Savings $25K Pitch Day, with two contestants selected to throw for a chance to win $25,000.

On Saturday night, the winning pitcher was reliever Preston Ryan, who went six innings and threw 95 pitches in following starter Andrew Nelson, who threw five innings, allowing seven hits, five runs (three earned), two walks, and fanning five. Ryan gave up four hits, walked four and struck out five, and worked out of some tough jams along the way.

Andrew Summerville was the losing pitcher.

Nathan Lukes and Hunter Mercado-Hood were both 3-6 on the game, and Jake Lesinksi drove in three runs with a first-inning bases-loaded double.

Both teams had their sloppy moments on defence, with Bellingham charged with three errors and the HarbourCats making two defensive mistakes that didn't show on the error total -- one a pop-up in the infield that four players converged on but watched fall to the turf.

The HarbourCats scored four times in the first inning and once in the third, but gave up two runs in each of the third and fourth innings. Bellingham put one run across in the fifth.

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West Coast League Stories from August 3, 2014


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