Colton Moore has been hard to ignore with the Victoria HarbourCats. Which is good because being noticed is what it’s all about in summer collegiate circuits such as the West Coast League.
“It’s for the development and also for the exposure to get your name out there for the MLB draft and pro ball,” said the HarbourCats slugger, who is committed next season to the NCAA University of Arizona Wildcats in the Pac-12.
It isn’t lost on Moore that, although the odds are long and it’s not easy, you can get there from here. Infielder Brooks Lee, part of the Corvallis Knights team that beat the HarbourCats in the 2019 WCL final, is ranked as the top overall player for the 2022 MLB draft this month. Catcher Adley Rutschman, also out of the Knights, was the top pick in the 2019 MLB draft by the Orioles and was called up this month by Baltimore. WCL alumni have been selected in the first round in each of the past five MLB drafts, although the players are listed under their university teams. This year’s opening-day MLB rosters included 33 WCL alumni. The pathway is there. The top few will take it.
As part of the process, Moore will head to Tucson in the fall as a junior and the Wildcats have to like what they are getting. Moore has been doing a solid job in Victoria of both developing and gaining exposure for himself. He is tied for third in WCL home runs with six while backing up his long-ball threat with the consistency of a .288 batting average. (Moore was hitting .305 before going 0-6 in Wednesday night’s 12-inning 6-4 HarbourCats win over the NightOwls in Nanaimo for the ʼCats’ fourth-consecutive victory).
Moore focused on greater distance as one of his hitting goals coming into this summer season: “I hit six home runs all last season in [Cisco] college and have matched that already in summer ball. I came in with the goal of swinging with more power.”
But whether power hitter or spray hitter, it all comes down to contact and “putting the ball in the barrel,” he added.
With the likes of Moore, Roberto Gonzalez (.420 heading into Thursday night), Jessada Brown (.318), Joseph Redfield (.310) and Grady Morgan (.306), the Victoria offence is a threat.
“My teammates are elite hitters who get on base and my job is to knock those guys home,” said Moore, who bats in the four or five spots in the order, and led the team with 22 RBIs heading into Thursday.
“It’s so cool to come together in summer baseball with guys who all have the same goals, but who all come from different schools in different places and raised with different backgrounds, and learning about them.”
Moore and the HarbourCats (5-5 in the second half and 16-19 overall) were playing the expansion NightOwls (1-5 and 12-19) in the WCL Island derby Thursday night at Serauxmen Stadium as the clubs closed out their six-game regular-season set. The HarbourCats, who led the Island season series 4-1, were on their way to a fifth-consecutive overall league victory with a 16-1 lead in the ninth inning as Redfield had four hits, three runs scored and three RBIs to take the team lead in the latter over Moore. Brown had four hits and three runs scored.
Although from Amarillo, Texas, Moore got into the Island rivalry: “Nanaimo is young but this is going to be a crazy, intense rivalry in three or four years once it develops.”
The HarbourCats return down-Island to open a three-game home series at Wilson’s Group Stadium at Royal Athletic Park tonight against the Yakima Valley Pippins (6-3 and 15-21), who are on a five-game winning streak.
The NightOwls will be in Bellingham tonight to take on the North Division first-half champion Bells (2-4 and 21-10).
