The Victoria Harbourcats added and subtracted to their roster on Friday.
The West Coast League team signed five more players for the upcoming 2016 summer campaign, but announced veterans Alex Rogers 鈥� a key piece of the team鈥檚 pitching staff the last two years 鈥� and infielder Michael Gretler will not be back.
Gretler, a sophomore at Oregon State, was converted to a catcher by the NCAA team, a position where the HarbourCats already had depth. Rogers, a junior at North Dakota State, was placed in the Northwoods League by his NDSU coaches for 2016.
鈥淎n unavoidable factor in constructing a summer-collegiate baseball roster is the fact that a number of players will drop off of the roster at any point in the year for a variety of reasons, be it personal or financial needs of the player, summer school, or the player being placed with another summer team by their college program,鈥� managing partner Jim Swanson stated in a statement. 鈥淏ecause of this, some players previously signed by the HarbourCats will not be reporting to Victoria this summer.鈥�
The HarbourCats are, however, bringing on right-handed pitchers Cam Schneider of Cal Poly and Greg Casper of South Dakota State; left-handers Matt Mosca of Mesa Community College and Jack Wolger of UC Berkeley; and outfielder Matt Lautz of UC Santa Barbara.
Schneider is a six-foot-seven, 230-pounder who will command some attention on the mound. A freshman, Schneider has started seven games so far this spring for Cal Poly. Casper is a closer at South Dakota State, while Mosca is Mesa Community College鈥檚 ace who will be transfering to NCAA Div. 2 school Dixie State this fall.
The HarbourCats open the 2016 WCL season June 3 at Walla Walla. Victoria鈥檚 home opener is set for June 7 at Royal Athletic Park against the Wenatchee AppleSox.
