VICTORIA 3
WALLA WALLA 0
Who wants it?
That鈥檚 what close followers of the West Coast League鈥檚 North Division are likely asking themselves as no one has jumped out of the pack in the second half of the 2016 season.
The Victoria HarbourCats, Bellingham Bells, Kelowna Falcons and Walla Walla Sweets were all knotted up atop the division at 8-7 coming into Tuesday night鈥檚 play. Victoria then bit into the Sweets 3-0 at Royal Athletic Park in the opener of a three-game set in front of 1,498 fans.
Not that the HarbourCats have as much to play for, having already clinched the first-half title and already qualified for the playoffs for the first time since joining the league. They, obviously, still want to finish with the best record overall and clinch home field throughout.
鈥淣o one has jumped up. I think if someone goes 8-4 down the stretch here that would get it done,鈥� said HarbourCats general manager Brad Norris-Jones. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 tough to win the second half. Arms wear down. You start to lose bodies. We鈥檙e glad we won the first half.鈥�
Having arrived from a long trip back from Corvalis, the HarbourCats sent North Vancouver鈥檚 Will McAffer out to the mound on Tuesday and he had an extra set of eyes on him with Major League Baseball Canadian scouting supervisor Walt Burrows on hand.
McAffer was third in the league in strikeouts with 51 coming into the game and collected four more over 61脷3 innings. Walla Walla鈥檚 Chris Murphy sits No. 1 with 57 K鈥檚.
Matt Lautz replaced McAffer and threw an inning of relief, collecting three flyballs before Greg Casper closed it out over the last two innings, also finishing with four strikeouts.
Walla Walla countered with starter Bobby Ay, third in earned-run average at 1.43 to start the evening (behind Sweets鈥� teammate Easton Lucas in second at 1.41) Ay struck out eight over six innings and allowed an unearned run in the fourth on a throwing error to second baseman Jarren Duran.
Reliever Dylan Suppan went the last two innings for the Sweets.
Offensively, Riley Guntrip had a pair of hits for Victoria and scored the first run of the ball game. Victoria added two more runs in the eighth, thanks to a pair of errors. All three runs were unearned. Tommy Jew also had a pair of hits for the winners.
With just five more home games remaining, the HarbourCats are 32-11 overall with Yakima Valley at 27-18 and Corvalis Knights 24-18. Victoria has already clinched the seasonal series against the Knights and the HarbourCats now have 11 games left.
With the win Victoria improves to 9-7 and is now tied with Kelowna, which defeated Wenatchee 6-4. Bellingham lost 5-0 to Cowlitz to slip to 8-8.
鈥淲e鈥檙e tired. We鈥檙e still winning, but we鈥檙e tired,鈥� admitted Norris-Jones, who made trips with the team to Bend and Corvalis and also took in the all-star game.
EXTRA INNINGS: Victoria鈥檚 Joe Prior, who celebrated his birthday on Tuesday, was hitting .300 entering the game with four home runs, four doubles and 25 RBIs. He was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
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