The Victoria HarbourCats鈥� improbable ride continues.
The HarbourCats are going to their first West Coast League championship series after routing the Kelowna Falcons 11-5 on Wednesday in the Okanagan to sweep their best-of-three North Division playoff final 2-0.
The 鈥機ats needed help 鈥� a favourable result in another game on the last day of the regular season 鈥� just to slip into the playoffs as the North Division second-half champions. They then outscored the first-half champion Falcons 8-2 and 11-5 for the first two playoff victories in Victoria franchise history.
鈥淚t鈥檚 amazing. We were considered down and out, but we rallied as a team and put together two solid playoff games,鈥� said Victoria GM Brad Norris-Jones.
Po-Hao Huang lifted a towering three-run homer, and had five RBIs in total, to lead Victoria on Wednesday at Elks Stadium.
鈥淸Huang] has been our silent leader,鈥� said Norris-Jones.
HarboutCats starter Blake Hannah (3-2), out of UC-Davis, was solid in victory by going six complete innings with four hits and one earned run allowed.
Victoria now awaits the winner of the South Division final. The Corvallis Knights defeated the Yakima Valley Pippins 8-4 Wednesday to tie that series 1-1. The deciding game is tonight in Corvallis, Oregon.
If Yakima Valley wins, the Pippins would host the first game of the best-of-three league final Saturday with the second game Monday at Royal Athletic Park, and third game if needed, also in Victoria on Tuesday. If Corvallis is the South representative, Victoria will host Game 1 on Saturday, with the duration of the series shifting to Corvallis on Monday and Tuesday.
