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When the Victoria HarbourCats’ team bus pulled into Bend this week, it was in central Oregon and well off the I-5 corridor, but not off the sports map.
Bend has produced Rio-bound world record-holder and defending 2012 London Olympics decathlon champion Ashton Eaton, Super Bowl-finalist kicker Ryan Longwell, former Vancouver Canucks winger Jere Gillis and boasts a vibrant running, mountain-biking and outdoors culture.
Bend’s colourful baseball history includes 19 years of Single-A minor pro in 1970 and 1971, and from 1978 to 1994 in the Northwest League as a Phillies, Angels, Rockies and A’s affiliate.
One of those Bend players in 1971 was a guy named Kurt Russell before he escaped from New York and L.A. and drove 3,000 miles to Graceland.
Vince Genna Stadium is still there, now hosting West Coast League summer collegiate ball, and the HarbourCats were playing in the venerable facility Saturday. But the night belonged to the host Bend Elks in a 4-2 victory.
Starter Blake Hannah took the loss for the HarbourCats (27-8 and ranked No. 5 in the latest poll of North American summer collegiate baseball teams). The UC-Davis hurler was steady enough in giving up two earned runs, three hits, no walks with four strikeouts over five complete innings. But the rolls didn’t go his way in a tight game. Holden Lyons came on in relief for Victoria and went three innings, giving up three hits and two earned runs.
An A.J. Alcantara single scored Griffin Andreychuk as Victoria tied the game 1-1 in the top of the fourth inning. Victoria tied it 2-2 when Ben Polshuk scored on a Brad Pluschkell RBI in the top of the sixth inning.
But each time the HarbourCats levelled, the Elks (17-21) had an answer to regain the lead, as with Patrick Flynn’s solo homer in the bottom of the fifth inning for the winning run.
The timely hitting, on the other hand, just wasn’t there for the HCats as they left 13 runners stranded on base to just four left for Bend. Both mounds did well as the teams’ pitchers allowed only a combined six hits each.
Victoria won the opening game of the three-game set 7-3 on Friday night. The rubber match is this afternoon at Vince Genna concluding a nine-games-in-nine days stretch for the HarbourCats.
The 2016 WCL all-star game, hosted by the Cowlitz Black Bears, is Tuesday night in Longview, Washington. Representing the HarbourCats will be pitchers Austin Dondanville, Will McAffer, Josh Mitchell and position players/sluggers Polshuk, Andreychuk and Pac-12 UCLA-bound Jarron Silva.
Victoria returns to Royal Athletic Park for a three-game set against the Bellingham Bells starting Wednesday evening. Then it’s white-line fever again for a three-game set against the Knights in Corvallis, Oregon, beginning next Saturday.
cdheensaw@timescolonist
Twitter.com/tc_vicsports
