VICTORIA 9
GRESHAM 5
Welcome. Here鈥檚 your uniforms. Now get out there.
Ben Polschuk, Austin Dondanville and Tommy Jew took their places Wednesday night in the Victoria HarbourCats lineup in a 9-5 victory against the Gresham GreyWolves of suburban Portland. They got into town only the night before following their school commitments.
It was Victoria鈥檚 seventh consecutive West Coast League victory after starting the season with three losses. The GreyWolves fell to 3-5.
Polschuk jacked two homers, a towering solo shot off the scoreboard followed by a three-run round-tripper, while Cal-Poly teammate Dondanville took the win on the mound by allowing one hit over four inning with six strikeouts.
Jew, who started at shortstop and was strong defensively, but went 0-4 at the plate. He can be excused if his mind was somewhere else. Jew was a redshirt freshman this season for the University of California-Santa Barbara, which means he doesn鈥檛 travel and isn鈥檛 with the highly-regarded Gauchos at the 2016 College World Series in Omaha.
鈥淚 am rooting for them, but I have a job to do here,鈥� said Jew.
Able only to practice and train with the Gauchos this season, he was just happy to finally see some game action.
鈥淭he red shirt experience was still a great experience . . . I learned the college ball routine,鈥� he said.
鈥淏ut it鈥檚 good to finally play in a game.鈥�
Jew wasn鈥檛 drafted out of his Grade 12 year in San Ramon, California, last year, which means his next chance is in three years in his junior season at UC-Santa Barbara.
鈥淎t the end of the day, it鈥檚 what I want [to be drafted],鈥� he said.
鈥淚f you don鈥檛 want to do that, then what are you doing playing at this level? That鈥檚 the ultimate goal. Victoria is a good place to start my summer league career.鈥�
And UC-Santa Barbara isn鈥檛 exactly a bad place to be in NCAA baseball, either.
The HarbourCats and GreyWolves close out their set with a matinee today at 12:35 p.m. with about 2,000 school children expected to attend.
That will be followed by another three-game homestand beginning Friday night against the Cowlitz Black Bears from Kelso-Longview, Washington.
