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The Victoria HarbourCats should be in the theatre, not baseball. They certainly know how to bring down a curtain with some suspense.
Their 6-2 victory over then Yakima Valley Pippins on Saturday night before 4,976 fans at Royal Athletic Park gave Victoria a 39-14 record to tie the all-time WCL standard for wins in a season set by the 2011 Wenatchee AppleSox.
The HarbourCats can establish the new record of 40 today at 1 p.m. at RAP in the last game of the regular season.
Victoria blew the game open in the bottom of the eighth inning with a trio of big two-out blasts 鈥� a Ryan Anderson double followed by a P.J. Floyd RBI triple followed by a two-run homer by Tommy Jew.
鈥淚 was not looking to hit a home run. I just wanted to hit the ball hard to score a run [Floyd was on third],鈥� said Jew, from UC-Santa Barbara. 鈥淏ut I got a hanging curve ball.鈥�
Jew said a 40-win season wasn't a dream when the campaign began. 鈥淚t was not our goal . . . but as we got rolling, it became real. And now it鈥檚 there for the taking.鈥�
Floyd, out of Sacramento State, said: 鈥淭his is a special group of players.鈥�
Blake Hannah (4-2) from UC-Irvine took the win by going six innings with six hits, two runs, five strikeouts.
鈥淏lake pitched really well tonight, as did our relief,鈥� said Cats skipper Graig Merritt.
鈥淥ur pitching has carried us this season and did again tonight.鈥�
And those hits weren鈥檛 bad, either, when needed in the eighth.
Scheduled starter today for Victoria is six-foot-two Kyle Mora, a Grade 12 graduate headed to his freshman season in the NCAA Pac-12 with the UCLA Bruins.
About potentially setting the WCL record for wins, Merritt said: 鈥淚t comes down to one game. We want to do it for these fans.鈥�
Both the HarbourCats, who will play the Bellingham Bells in the North Division playoffs, and the Pippins (32-21), who will play the Corvallis Knights in the South Division, are headed to the post-season next week.
