Minor-league baseball is known for its quirky promotions, which have included foot-measuring device giveaway night by the Syracuse Chiefs, George Costanza Night by the Fort Myers Miracle, salute to indoor plumbing night by the West Virginia Power and the Altoona Curve’s Awful Night with David Hasselhoff songs on the PA and fans bobbing for onions.
But the Victoria HarbourCats take it to the grave with their annual free funeral giveaway game, which this year was held Sunday afternoon at Wilson’s Group Stadium at Royal Athletic Park. Perhaps appropriately, the HarbourCats were dead on arrival in an 11-0 West Coast League loss to the Kelowna Falcons (26-22). It was only the second loss at home for the HarbourCats, who are 22-2 at Royal Athletic Park this season.
The HarbourCats (32-15), however, have plenty of life remaining. They won the three-game weekend set 2-1 to assure their season will head into the afterlife, which in sports is the post-season. The HarbourCats have clinched a North Division playoff berth and will play the Wenatchee AppleSox (35-13) in the first round with home-diamond advantage to be decided over the final six regular-season games, beginning with the Island derby against the Nanaimo NightOwls (24-24) tonight, Wednesday and Thursday at Royal Athletic Park and concluding with three games in Edmonton from Friday through Sunday against the Riverhawks (15-33).
The Bellingham Bells (31-16) captured the first-half North Division championship and playoff top-seed berth that goes with it. The Bells will play the North Division fourth seed.
The second-half North Division champion will be the second seed with the AppleSox leading that race at 16-5 to Victoria’s 13-7. Both clubs, however, are assured at least one of the two playoff wildcard divisional berths based on overall record and will be the second and third seeds with those positions to be determined.
In the hunt for the fourth post-season spot in the North Division are the Falcons and NightOwls. That gives Nanaimo, looking for the playoffs, and Victoria, tracking down home-diamond advantage for the best-of-three first round, both something to play for this week beyond just Island bragging rights.
Victoria comes into the set with three of the top-10 batters in the WCL with Hudson Shupe from NCAA Div. 1 Gonzaga hitting a league third-leading .362. Shupe said he changed his mechanics for summer ball to be more efficient: “At Gonzaga, I had a base hit-mentality. I’ve worked with a hitting coach and brought more power and barrel consistency to summer ball. Baseball is about routine and consistency.”
The WCL is among several summer collegiate leagues across North America in which NCAA players can extend their seasons into the summer after their university seasons end in the spring.
Victoria head coach Todd Haney, who played five seasons in MLB, has described Shupe as “an intelligent player who is very driven and athletic [and who] prepares himself well … his goal is to play in MLB and he is locked in on what he wants to accomplish.”
HarbourCats’ hitter Dallas Macias from the Pac-12 Oregon State Beavers is tied for eighth in the league with a .327 batting average and Tyler Davis, out of Fresno State, is 10th at .325. Nick Dumesnil from Cal-Baptist is the fourth HarbourCats player hitting above .300 with a .311 average.
Wylie Waters from West Vancouver leads the NightOwls at .314 with incoming University of Hawaii freshman Elijah Ickes, taken by the Texas Rangers last month in the 2023 MLB draft, batting .266.
