Baseball
Comeback Falls Short
Big league ball once again hit the diamond at Nat Bailey Stadium at ScotiaBank Field with the Canadians looking yet another victory following Sunday’s 5-3 victory against the Aqua Sox.
Entering the game the C’s are 15 and 10 on the season with a 9-3 home record and a 6-7 record when on the road.
The Aqua Sox are the farm team for the Mariners with a record of 6-5 at home and 6-8 record on the road, but looking at possibly moving up, albeit late in the season to think of this.
The Canadians have secured a date with destiny claiming victory for the first half of the season and have their sights set on not only a repeat of a championship, but getting ring number four.
The teams traded hits throughout the first two innings, with neither coming close to crossing the plate for a scoring run,
While most everyone was focused on the game at hand, Canadians play by play Rob Fai was enjoying a special interview with Claire Eccles who recently wrapped up her season.
Claire Eccles calls Surrey BC home and has become the first woman to pitch in the West Coast League, making her debut on the mound for the Victoria Harbourcats pitching two complete innings.
She allowed two runs on one hit and one walk in Victoria’s 9-0 loss to the Wenatchee Applesox and she mentioned she threw “about six, seven or eight knuckleballs,” in her appearance, which covered the eighth and ninth innings.
One might think that the HarbourCats name was not only different, but unique as it was named following a public naming contest where they received over 600 entrants.
The Harbourcats were founded in 2012 as an expansion team and it wasn’t until October 12, 2012 that the team officially announced it would be called the HarbourCats.
The 2013 season saw the team utilize co-coaches Dennis Rogers and Bob Miller in their inaugural season in fourth place in the league’s North Division standings finishing with a record of 22-3.
The night wasn’t the easiest for the C’s as they clearly struggled in the first six and the only runs scored were in the top of the 7th as Everett managed four runs taking a 4-0 lead to the eighth.
White Rock’s Brendan Bouchey came in as a reliever in the top of the 9th throwing 14 pitches averaging 95 mph shutting down the AquaSox heading into the home stretch.
Jose Espada (RHP) went six scoreless innings who turned the ball over to Grayson Huffman who unfortunately had a pair of errors.
This allowed a four-run rally that handed the victory to Everett as Vancouver fell 4-2 to Everett.
The Canadians offense was all but solid as they left 13 runners on-base in the loss despite managing one run in both the bottom of the 8th and 9th innings.
The C’s were 4-for-15 with runners in scoring position as Bryan Lizardo got his 15th RBI of the season.
Kacy Clemens managed a double scoring his 43rd RBI of the summer and this loss see’s Vancouver go 36-28; 15-11 to however maintain a share of top spot in the North Division alongside Tri-City who are 35-29; 15-11.
Tickets are still available for the upcoming playoffs held at Nat Bailey with the first game slated September 6th or visit www.canadiansbaseball.com.