Well, that was a slap in the face, for a second straight night.
A lengthy 10-hour-plus bus ride into Oregon on Friday was followed by a marathon five-hour and 16-minute 4-3 loss that ended early Saturday as the Victoria HarbourCats’ first venture to Goss Stadium resulted in the disappointing 17-inning defeat to the Corvalis Knights.
Needless to say, fireworks night — on the eve of the 4th of July — was delayed into the wee hours of Independence Day after the 7:15 p.m. start.
According to Knights’ officials, about 1,250 of the original 3,241 fans remained till the bitter end as the locals celebrated America’s birthday with some fanfare.
It all added up to a wacky evening for HarbourCats’ coach Graig Merritt, who was not only ejected in the 14th inning, but also suspended for Saturday’s 4-2 loss and possibly today’s series finale at 5:05 p.m., pending an appeal.
With the two defeats, the HarbourCats slip to 8-15.
Up 2-0 on a sacrifice fly by Scott Jarvis in the second inning and Chris Fougner’s RBI single in the seventh, the HarbourCats collapsed late in Saturday’s outing, allowing one run in the seventh and three in the eighth. Two of them came off a squeeze play and subsequent error.
On Friday, five HarbourCats relievers did a solid job getting out of numerous jams over the marathon, including a bases-loaded, no-out scenario in the 15th inning after starter Alex Rogers went the opening seven innings, allowing three runs on seven hits.
Kyle Francis, Josh Mitchell and Austin Dondanville did not allow hits through a collective 52Ú3 innings before Matt Blais was tagged with the loss.
Corvalis’s bullpen did not give up a single hit over the last nine innings on Friday as Chris Clements, Michael Martin and Branden Cutsforth kept Victoria batters at bay after starter Slater Lee went eight innings, allowing five hits, with just four HarbourCats collecting hits.
Victoria returns home for a series beginning Monday against Kitsap.
Twitter/tc_vicsports
