CORVALLIS 5
VICTORIA 1
听
The first perfect game in West Coast League history was a major milestone on Friday, but the Victoria HarbourCats weren鈥檛 celebrating. The HarbourCats were on the wrong end of the game pitched by Kitsap鈥檚 Spenser Watkins, in a 2-0 BlueJackets victory, and wanted nothing better than to erase the memory.
Unfortunately, it didn鈥檛 happen on Saturday at Royal Athletic Park. Despite some great pitching by starting righthander Ty Provencher, the HarbourCats fell 5-1 to the Corvallis Knights, in the first meeting between the two teams.
鈥淥ur pitcher did another outstanding job on the mound, but we continue to struggle,鈥� coach Dennis Rogers said. 鈥淭here comes a point we鈥檝e got to catch a break.鈥�
The HarbourCats and Knights are back on the field today at 1 p.m., and again on Monday, at 7 p.m.
Before the game, leftfielder Jordan Ellis, who had two hits on the night, said the team had hoped to turn things around. He said batters get into funks, and the big hitters needed to get the momentum going, especially after getting shut out 3-0 and 2-0 in well-pitched games in Kitsap.
鈥淲hen those [hitters] don鈥檛 get it done, that鈥檚 when we struggle.鈥�
Ellis did his part, banging a lead-off base hit against winning pitcher Casey Bloomquist, a former teammate of Ellis鈥檚 at Cal Poly. Bloomquist 鈥� 4-0 on the season 鈥� went 82脷3 innings and allowed six hits, one run, no walks and four strikeouts, while Provencher threw 11 strikeouts, with four hits and no walks, through eight innings.
The Knights, first in the South Division at 25-15, picked up the game鈥檚 first run in the top of the third inning. Rightfielder Grant Melker singled, and worked his way to third base. With two out, second baseman Peter Van Gansen blasted a ball all the way to the fence, for an RBI triple. Helped out by some terrific defence throughout the game, the Knights scored one more in the eighth. They added another three in the ninth, after Scott Kuzminsky relieved Provencher, and the HarbourCats (18-21) committed a couple of errors.
Catcher Alex Real scored in the bottom of the ninth for Victoria, but the attempted rally fell short.
