It ends at a nifty 19.
The Victoria HarbourCats鈥� record West Coast League baseball winning streak was finally halted in a 2-1 loss to the Kelowna Falcons in the second game of a sa国际传媒 Day doubleheader at Royal Athletic Park on Friday.
HarbourCats players and coaches said they have never been part of such a streak.
鈥淚 remember losing 12 straight in my first year of Double-A [pro ball] . . . and I thought last year鈥檚 [HarbourCats] winning streak of nine games was pretty good,鈥� Victoria head coach Graig Merritt said.
But this was off the charts, literally, as it smashed the former WCL record of 14 consecutive wins set by the 2011 Wenatchee AppleSox.
鈥淭his is a special group of guys,鈥� Merritt said. 鈥淎nd we鈥檙e not stopping. We鈥檙e going to come back to work and refocus on something else.鈥�
Merritt knows exactly what that 鈥渟omething else鈥� is.
鈥淥ur goal now is to win 40 games because the WCL season record is 39 [set by the 2011 AppleSox],鈥� he said.
WCL teams each play 54 regular-season games, leaving Victoria needing 21 wins in its remaining 31 games to reach a league record 40 wins.
鈥淲e want to be the best team in WCL regular-season history,鈥� Merritt said.
And then some in the post-season. The HarbourCats are 19-4 and have clinched the first-half season title for the North Division and the automatic playoff spot that goes with it. The HCats sewed up their first playoff berth in the four seasons of franchise history on Thursday in a 9-1 victory over Kelowna, with six games to spare at that point in the 27-game first half. The game drew a WCL record crowd of 5,133 fans on pre-sa国际传媒 Day fireworks night.
sa国际传媒 Day itself got off to some Friday afternoon fireworks in the first of two seven-inning games, thanks to a couple of NCAA Cal Poly teammates. Ben Polschuk鈥檚 grand-slam homer and Austin Dondanville鈥檚 complete-game one-hit pitching powered Victoria to a 7-0 win over Kelowna.
But baseball can be capricious 鈥� generous and cruel on the same afternoon. Brendt Citta鈥檚 RBI single scored Tevin Mitchell in the sixth inning to give Kelowna (12-11) the 2-1 lead in the second game Friday. The first-game hero, Polschuk, was given a called third strike in the seventh and final inning of the second game with the tying runner, Cody Snider, on second base.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 how baseball goes,鈥� said Polschuk, who represented the go-ahead run at the plate.
Victoria batted in the top of the inning because Friday鈥檚 second game was a rescheduled rained-out Kelowna home date. That also means Victoria is technically still undefeated at home at 14-0.
It was a fine line in that second game. Snider鈥檚 earlier hit in the seventh inning looked to be a solo homer for the tying 2-2 run, but just fell short, limiting him to a double.
鈥淚 thought [Snider鈥檚] ball was out . . . I never thought we were going to lose the game,鈥� Polschuk said.
It was still quite a run.
鈥淭his team has bonded quicker than any other team I have played on,鈥� said six-foot-four Polschuk, who leads the WCL with five home runs. 鈥淎 streak like this is something I have never been a part of before on any team.鈥�
Cal Poly teammate Dondanville concurred. The pitcher said his first-game one-hitter Friday was the result of the play behind him. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 see a summer-ball infield like this,鈥� Dondanville said.鈥淭hey make non-routine plays look easy. The guys are killing it.鈥�
This team will simply reload, Dondanville vowed. 鈥淲e鈥檒l just have to start another streak.鈥�
The HarbourCats and the Falcons meet again on Saturday evening at Royal Athletic Park. On Sunday, the HarbourCats will play an exhibition game against the Nanaimo Pirates in Nanaimo.
