On Canadian Forces Night at Royal Athletic Park on Friday, the Victoria HarbourCats and Cowlitz Black Bears both launched impressive attacks that went late into the night.
And it was the Black Bears who were last standing as Cowlitz scored three runs in the top of the 10th and then survived a scary bottom half to top the HarbourCats 11-8 in just over four hours.
After nine innings, the two West Coast League teams were tied 8-8 and both clubs were in double digits in hits in front of 1,577 fans on a windy night at the ball park.
In the top of 10, Cowlitz (4-6) got a single and RBI from Lorin Archibald and a two-run double from Casey Henderson to put the heat on the home team
And the HarbourCats rallied in their half of the 10th, loading the bases courtesy singles from Michael Gretler, Torin Goldstein and Ben Polschuk.
But Alex DeGoti, Reno Rankin hit shallow fly-ball outs, and then Lars Rider got Austin Guibor to strike out looking, dropping the HarbourCats to 5-8 on the season.
Newcomer Gretler, from Oregon State and a 2014 draft pick of the Boston Red Sox, got things started for the HarbourCats with a two-run home run in the bottom of the second and the HarbourCats looked to be on their way.
But the Black Bears put up three runs in the fourth and fifth innings to quiet the Royal Athletic crowd. The HarbourCats鈥� bats got going again in the bottom of the sixth as Victoria scored four runs thanks to RBI singles from DeGoti, Guibor and Jackson Thoreson.
DeGoti and second baseman Griffin Andreychuk were making their first appearances of the season at Royal Athletic Park. DeGoti was 1-for-5 with an RBI, while Andreychuk, the Nanaimo native who just arrived from Seattle University, was 1-for-4 with an RBI.
Gretler finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs in his HarbourCats鈥� debut.
Shawn Kennedy started the game for the HarbourCats and went four innings, giving up eighth hits and four runs, three of them earned. HarbourCats head coach Graig Merritt made good use of his now fully loaded bullpen, with four different relievers seeing action and Josh Mitchell taking the loss while pitching the ninth and 10th innings.
The two teams will do it all again tonight at 6:35 p.m.
EXTRA BASES: Gabe Clark was supposed to rejoin the HarbourCats on Monday, but those plans have changed as the big-hitting first baseman from Oregon State signed a pro contract with the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday and will be immediately reassigned to one of their minor league affiliates. The Blue Jays drafted Clark in the 26th round of last week鈥檚 2015 MLB draft.
