Victoria and Port Angeles have a spotty, if somewhat unique, sporting history together.
It began with the famous cross-strait swim craze of the 1950s, which included the legendary Marilyn Bell. It was renewed Thursday night on the diamond as the Victoria HarbourCats also crossed the strait to provide the opposition for the first game in Port Angeles Lefties history.
The HarbourCats set a West Coast League baseball record last season with 40 wins. They began the first of 54 games in the 2017 season with an 11-2 victory over the Lefties before nearly 3,000 fans at Port Angeles鈥� Civic Field.
Chicago Cubs 2016 draft pick A.J. Block, a freshman from the Washington State Cougars of the Pac-12, became the fifth pitcher to start a season opener for the HarbourCats.
The first (in 2013) was Victoria product Nick Pivetta, who this year was briefly called up from Triple-A to the MLB by the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Victoria starter in the 2014 season opener was Tim Peabody from Loyola Marymount. Alex Rogers of Nanaimo got the nod in 2015 and James Kannenberg from the University of San Francisco Dons had the honours in 2016.
Block, a willowy six-foot-five southpaw from Bellevue, Washington, acquitted himself well Thursday with eight strikeouts over three innings for the victory. Offensively, Po-Hao Huang from Taiwan reached base four times for Victoria.
HCats GM Brad Norris-Jones said he liked his team鈥檚 鈥渢ight defence.鈥�
The game was the featured sole league-wide 2017 opener.
The HarbourCats are the visitors for another team鈥檚 home opener tonight when they face Yakima Valley to begin a three-game set against the Pippins.
Victoria鈥檚 home opener is Monday at Royal Athletic Park against the Wenatchee AppleSox.
