A whiplash weekend of hair-pin turns has ended with the Victoria HarbourCats playoff-bound as the second-half champions of the North Division of the West Coast League.
The HarbourCats (15-12 second half, 29-25 overall) open the post-season tonight at 6:35 at Royal Athletic Park in Game 1 of the best-of-three divisional final against the North Division first-half champion Kelowna Falcons (28-26 overall).
The second, and if necessary, third game will be played in Kelowna on Wednesday and Thursday.
The winner of the series will advance to the league final against the winner of the South Division playoff series between the Corvallis Knights and Yakima Valley Pippins.
The HarbourCats could have clinched a playoff berth with a victory Sunday night in Port Angeles against the Lefties, but a controversial balk called on Victoria pitcher Adam McKillican in the bottom of the 11th inning allowed the winning Port Angeles run to score from third base with two out.
That left Victoria needing to rely on others in the final WCL game of the regular season played Monday night in Wenatchee between the AppleSox and the Knights. A victory by Wenatchee would have enabled the Bellingham Bells to take the North Division second-half title and playoff berth that goes with it. A win by the Knights would mean Victoria would take the second-half crown and advance to meet Kelowna.
The Knights defeated the AppleSox handily 12-1 to do Victoria a huge favour as the gathered HarbourCats watched the game together on live streaming.
鈥淚n Port Angeles, the night before, we were in disbelief when we looked to be clinching only to have it yanked away from us at the last moment,鈥� said HarbourCats GM Brad Norris-Jones.
鈥淎nd then we get the right score the next night that we needed. But that鈥檚 baseball.鈥�
The Knights, with nothing at stake, could have rested several players for the playoffs.
鈥淏ut they are just such a deep team,鈥� said Norris-Jones.
Good thing for the HarbourCats.
The 鈥機ats might be emotionally drained by the final-weekend鈥檚 hairy turn of events in the regular season. But don鈥檛 bet against them, said Norris-Jones.
鈥淲e鈥檙e ready,鈥� he said.
鈥淏efore we sat down to watch the Corvallis-Wenatchee game [last night], our players all said: 鈥業f we end up going to the playoffs, we鈥檙e going to win.鈥� 鈥�
Victoria鈥檚 starter today is expected to be Garrison Ritter, a late-season addition who has appeared in three games with six strikeouts, two walks, two hits allowed, two saves and a 1.22 ERA over 71脷3 innings of work.
