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They made it to the penultimate day of the West Coast League regular season before time and fate intervened. The Victoria HarbourCats鈥� dreams of the post season officially evaporated Saturday night.
The Bellingham Bells defeated Victoria 4-3. But the result was moot because the HarbourCats also had to rely on the Corvallis Knights (31-21) losing in order to stay alive in the race for the final wildcard playoff berth. That help never came as the Knights defeated the Medford Rogues 7-4 in Oregon to clinch the final wildcard spot.
The HarbourCats (28-24) will have to be content with finishing above .500 for the first time in the three years of franchise history in a collegiate summer league that boasted 209 WCL alumni active in affiliated pro ball in 2015, including 21 in the majors.
Austin Dondanville, out of NCAA Cal Poly, started Saturday for Victoria and gave up five hits and two runs over six innings of work to take the loss. The 鈥機ats offence was highlighted by Nanaimo-product Griffin Andreychuk鈥檚 fifth home run of the season to push Victoria鈥檚 league-lead in that category to 36.
Victoria closes out the season today in Bellingham against the West Division-leading and playoff-bound Bells (32-20).
Despite not making the playoffs, Victoria did successfully defend a noteworthy off-field championship this year. The HarbourCats led the WCL in attendance for the second consecutive season, with an average of 1,910 fans per game at Royal Athletic Park in 2015.
