The Victoria HarbourCats remain perfect at home and stretched their winning streak to a franchise-record-tying ninth straight on Friday night, easily defeating the visiting Cowlitz Black Bears 11-1 at Royal Athletic Park.
Victoria is now 7-0 at home, 9-3 overall, and tied the mark of nine straight victories set in both the 2014 and 2015 seasons. They can establish a new record tonight at 6:35 against the now 6-7 Black Bears.
Josh Mitchell won the battle of left-handed pitchers to record his first victory in front of 1,587 fans Friday, allowing one run on just four hits over seven innings. The University of Pittsburgh product had seven strikeouts.
鈥淭he team played really well. I found my stuff in the later innings, but it was nice to get 11 runs,鈥� said Mitchell, who was relieved by Skyler Henderson. 鈥淭he team played well. Coach [Graig] Merritt called a great game and the bats came alive. It was a nice team win to get to nine in a row.
鈥淚t makes pitching a heck of a lot easier,鈥� Mitchell added of the quick 4-0 lead after two innings. 鈥淏ullpen was a little rough before the game, but the early runs helped and the guys played good defence behind me.鈥�
Cowlitz starter Damon Jones suffered his first loss to fall to 2-1 on the West Coast League season, surrendering five runs on seven hits over five innings.
Reliever Parker McFadden threw eight straight balls in the sixth inning and gave up four runs in just one-third of an inning. His replacement, Devin McKesson, faced two batters and failed to register an out in the pivotal sixth in which the HarbourCats put up six runs.
Offensively, Nanaimo native Griffin Andreychuk drilled his first home run of the season to left-centre in the fifth inning as he went 3-for-4 at the plate, scoring twice. Jarron Silva was 3-for-5 for the victors with two RBIs and two runs scored.
Cameron Cannon had two hits, three RBIs and scored twice, and Brad Pluschkell also had two hits and a pair of runs.
It was a sloppy affair for the Black Bears who gave up a squibbler, two-base error on a pick-off throw and a run allowed on a passed ball in the first inning. A three-run, four-hit second inning made it 4-0 and the HarbourCats were well on their way.
EXTRA INNINGS: The extra fireworks promotion night, which the HarbourCats will soon announce, will be the third such promo of the season with dates already set for June 30 and Aug. 6. The third is expected to be July 9.
