It’s an auspicious thing to start on the mound for the Victoria HarbourCats. The first player to do that, 10 years ago at Royal Athletic Park, was hometown product Nick Pivetta who is now with the Boston Red Sox.
While that has been unrealistically hard to live up to for subsequent opening day starters, it’s at least a story to tell and a dream to follow. The HarbourCats have handed the ball to Jack Seward for tonight’s opening game of the West Coast League baseball season at Wilson’s Group Stadium against the Kamloops NorthPaws.
The six-foot-three, 205-pound hurler from Vancouver, who plays collegiately for Central Arizona, is a returnee who went 1-0 with three saves and a 1.15 ERA and 23 strikeouts and only 10 hits allowed over 23.1 innings in 14 games for the HarbourCats last season
“Jack [Seward] has a competitiveness and winning attitude,” said Todd Haney, who has been HarbourCats head coach since 2019.
“He is a bulldog on the mound and a part of our really good mix of returnees and new talent.”
Pitching is the key in baseball, as has been proven time and again, but it needs to be complemented by an offence that produces. Which is fine by Haney because that fits his philosophy to a tee — or a stolen base to be more sport-specific.
“We are definitely going to be aggressive again,” said the former pro infielder Haney, who played five seasons in MLB with the Montreal Expos, Chicago Cubs and New York Mets.
Pivetta, meanwhile, is among three former HarbourCats currently in MLB among the four in total that have made it to the big time. Andrew Vaughan is now with the Chicago White Sox and Nathan Lukes with the Toronto Blue Jays. They are among the 40 WCL alumni in the MLB this season. Twenty WCL alumni played in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
“The WCL continues to produce high quality talent and the players are getting better and better every year,” said Haney.
“Every year, more players are making it to big leagues. We are proud to be a step in the journey.”
The Nanaimo NightOwls, meanwhile, open their WCL season tonight at Serauxmen Stadium against the Walla Walla Sweets.
The WCL is a collegiate league in which NCAA and NAIA players can extend their university and college seasons, which end in the spring, by playing ball into the summer.
The 16 WCL teams will playing the regular season from tonight into the first week of August with playoffs to follow.
Haney said the HarbourCats had 30 players in camp.
“We have 10 to 12 players still to come this summer,” he said..
EXTRA BASES: Tonight is the first of three games between the HarbourCats and NorthPaws. Then Victoria will welcome Walla Walla for three games beginning Monday night at Wilson’s Group Stadium at Royal Athletic Park.
