There was no black cat, at least that anybody noticed, that walked in front of the Victoria HarbourCats鈥� dugout Friday night.
But the 鈥機ats might have felt like it as their winning streak 鈥� seven overall and 10 at home 鈥� both came to crashing halts.
The Bellingham Bells were pretty much left for road kill heading into the West Coast League series in Victoria after being swept this week in three games by the Yakima Valley Pippins. But Bellingham has more lives remaining. Not nine, but enough to still be in the hunt for the North Division first-half championship following its 12-2 victory over Victoria at Wilson鈥檚 Group Stadium at Royal Athletic Park.
The HarbourCats led the Bells by three games heading into the first-half ending three-game set and needed only a victory to clinch the WCL North first-half title and playoff berth that goes with it. Now with a two-game lead over Bellingham, the HarbourCats can clinch the first-half championship with a win either tonight or Sunday afternoon. The Bells, who hold the tie-breaker, need to sweep the series to claim the crown.
In one of the greatest collapses in MLB history, of course, the 1969 Chicago Cubs blew a substantial lead in the National League East standings to the upstart New York Mets. The demise began after a black cat walked in front of the Cubs dugout during a late-season game against the Mets at Shea Stadium. The rest is baseball lore.
Sunday is the bring your dogs to the stadium game. But HarbourCats fans might want to leave their cats at home.
Meanwhile, Nick Proctor is listed as a five-foot-nine, 175-pound utility right-handed pitcher by the NCAA Pac-12 UC-Berkeley Bears. Bellingham starter Proctor certainly showed great utility in tamping down HarbourCats鈥� hopes with a one-hit, six strikeout, two-walk, shutout over five full innings. He completely confounded Victoria鈥檚 formidable offence, which was held to just three hits overall on the night.
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