The Victoria HarbourCats received a dominating pitching performance Saturday night, but it wasn鈥檛 enough.
Bryan Conant (4-1), a six-foot-five lefty from Cal State-Fullerton, went nine innings and gave up no runs and six hits while striking out 10 for the H-Cats in Walla Walla, Wash.
But Connor Lawhead of the Sweets, out of Indiana-Purdue, matched Conant nearly pitch-for-pitch in a no-run, four-hit, 12 strikeout performance over eight innings for the home Walla Walla side.
The West Coast League game went scoreless into extra innings before Walla Walla pulled out a 1-0 victory in the 10th.
鈥淎 pitcher鈥檚 job is to keep his team in the game. That鈥檚 what I tried to do tonight, but it didn鈥檛 work out,鈥� Conant said.
Scott Kuzminsky came on in relief for Victoria in the 10th inning, and the University of Hawaii Rainbow was tagged with the winning run and the loss as the Sweets snapped a four-game losing streak.
鈥淸Conant] was outstanding, bordering on brilliant,鈥� Victoria manager Dennis Rogers said.
鈥淲e gave a great effort and will continue to the rest of the way.鈥�
Alex DeGoti, Braves draft-pick Alex Real, Nationals draft-pick Brandon Smith and John Schuknecht had the Victoria hits.
The clubs meet again today in the rubber match of the three-game set before the HarbourCats depart to play the AppleSox in a three-game series beginning Monday in Wenatchee, Wash.
Fourth-place Victoria (20-26) fell 4.5 games behind first-place Wenatchee (25-22) and four games behind the second-place Sweets (24-22), who currently hold down the second and final playoff slot in the North Division. The Bellingham Bells (25-24) are in third place, one game behind leading Wenatchee and half a game behind the Sweets.
The HarbourCats are down to their final eight regular-season games, the next five on the road. The season-ending homestand is Aug. 9-11 against Bellingham.
