The Victoria HarbourCats made sure their Sweet Sixteen didn鈥檛 turn into a Sour Seventeen.
The HarbourCats extended their West Coast League record winning streak to 17 games with a 7-6 victory over the host Wenatchee AppleSox on Wednesday night.
A.J. Alcantara from UC-Irvine led Victoria with two hits, including a homer, three RBIs and two runs scored. Matt Lautz, Brad Pluschkell and Tommy Jew also had two hits each for the HCats.
So, how does the HarbourCats鈥� streak stack up?
The all-time baseball pro winning-streak record is 29 games, set by the 1987 independent Pioneer League鈥檚 Salt Lake City Trappers, which landed them in the pages of Sports Illustrated.
The Trappers were partially owned by actor and comedian Bill Murray, who once came to bat in a Victoria Mussels jersey during a Single-A pro game at Royal Athletic Park, only to be turned away by the umpires.
The Mussels, and later Trappers, were owned by Murray鈥檚 buddy Van Schley.
Since WCL players are collegians, the NCAA winning streaks of the 1977 Texas Longhorns and 1999 Florida Atlantic Owls (34 each games in Div. I) and the 2000 Savannah State Tigers (46 consecutive games in Div. II) might be a more appropriate comparison.
The WCL is a league which allows U.S. collegiate NCAA players, many from the Pac-12, to play through the summer in a pro-style environment that includes, wood bats, every-day games and sapping bus travel.
In that spirit, the HarbourCats left right after the game Wednesday and drove 330 kilometres through the night in Washington state to Port Angeles in time to catch the first Coho sailing to Victoria this morning for their home game tonight against the Kelowna Falcons at RAP. It is the first of four contests against the Falcons through Saturday, including a sa国际传媒 Day doubleheader Friday afternoon.
