The Victoria HarbourCats added some experience to their pitching staff for the 2018 season.
The HarbourCats signed four right-handed pitchers, all with collegiate summer league experience, to the 2018 West Coast League roster. Two are returning arms in Wyatt Boone from Seattle University and Garrison Ritter from St. Martins. The other two are Nanaimo product Garrett Goodall from Embry-Riddle and Luke Manuel from Eastern New Mexico University.
Boone and Ritter both served as key starting pitchers down the stretch last season, with Boone (1-0, 4.90 ERA) starting three late regular season games and Ritter taking the ball in two playoff games. Ritter had two saves and a 1.22 ERA in the regular season, and posted a 2.84 ERA in the playoffs.
Meanwhile, Po-Hao Huang, who became a fan favourite last season for the HarbourCats in at Royal Athletic Park, has been named to the Taiwan national team 60-player initial roster for the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games.
If there had been a playoff MVP award in the WCL, Huang would have been in the running with a .368 average with a home run and seven RBIs in five games for the WCL runner-up HarbourCats. In 38 games during the season, he hit .283 with one home run, eight doubles, and 14 RBIs, and drew more walks (14) than he had strikeouts (11).
Because of his national team commitments, Huang will not return to the HarbourCats.
