VICTORIA 17
COWLITZ 6
There are more swings in a baseball season than at the Beacon Hill Park children鈥檚 playground.
A six-game West Coast League road trip by the Victoria HarbourCats that began with a 24-5 loss to the Bend Elks concluded Wednesday night with a 17-6 HarbourCats victory over the Cowlitz Black Bears in Kelso/Longview, Washington.
鈥淭here鈥檚 an old baseball adage that momentum is as good as next day鈥檚 pitcher,鈥� noted Victoria GM Jim Swanson.
The GM also pointed to the offence finally awakening.
鈥淚t was time for our bats to wake up. We missed a clutch hit or two, or we would have won the first two games in Cowlitz, also [contests taken 4-3 and 3-2 by the Black Bears]. We sure found those hits tonight,鈥� said Swanson, of the 17-hit attack.
鈥淭he Cowltiz ball park is not a band box, so hitting three home runs there is quite something.鈥�
That trey of shots over the fences for Victoria (5-7) came from Kevin Collard, with a grand slam, and two, two-run homers by P.J. Floyd to send the Black Bears reeling down to 3-6 on the season.
Victoria ace Alex Rogers moved to 3-0 by giving up three hits, two unearned runs, with three strikeouts and a walk over five innings.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been working hard and it was just a matter of time. We needed this,鈥� said Victoria head coach Graig Merritt.
He pointed to Floyd鈥檚 two homers.
鈥淧.J. was been working hard and he finally got rewarded tonight. It all came together,鈥� said Merritt.
Both clubs now head up to Victoria for a three-game set beginning Friday at Royal Athletic Park.
As is the nature of summer collegiate ball, there will be a platoon of new players in the HarbourCats鈥� lineup Friday as they arrive in town following mopping up season-ending NCAA or high school playoff and academic matters.
Among them is six-foot-four UCLA Bruins-bound high school infielder/outfielder Jake Pries, 37th-round draft pick this year of the Baltimore Orioles with a familial history to Victoria baseball. Pries鈥� father, Jeff, played in the majors and grandfather Don Pries managed, coached and starred on the minor-pro Victoria Athletics-Tyees teams in the 1950s before becoming the directtor of major-league scouting.
Others fresh in for Friday will be second baseman/outfielder Pikai Winchester, selected in the 40th round of the 2015 MLB draft by the Tampa Bay Rays, and Michael Gretler, a 2014 Boston Red Sox draft pick and touted six-foot-two Oregon State Beavers infieder. Also newly arrived for the weekend roster will be Scott Jarvis, Matt Blais, Austin Dondanville, Ben Polschuk and returnees from 2014 A.J. Alcantara and Griffin Andreychuk.
