Record-breaking start for HarbourCats

Walking it off ... the Victoria HarbourCats after their 14th straight win, a victory over the Kitsap BlueJackets in extra innings. 

By Jon Hodgson
Canadian Baseball Network
Jonathan Hodgson
VICTORIA, BC _ It has now officially been a historic start to the 2016 season for the Victoria HarbourCats.

After being swept in a three-game series on the road against the Walla Walla Sweets to open the season, the HarbourCats won their 15th consecutive game Monday night, a 7-4 win in Wenatchee against the AppleSox, setting a West Coast League record for longest winning streak. And they won again Tuesday to make it 16 in a row.

Fittingly, third year HarbourCat Griffin Andreychuk (Nanaimo, BC) delivered the eventual game-winning RBI double in the top of the eighth inning.

Poetically, it was the AppleSox who held the previous mark of 14, a run they went on during the 2011 season. This HarbourCats streak also began against Wenatchee on June 7, as Victoria swept their opening weekend series at Royal Athletic Park.

The HarbourCats swept a doubleheader from the Kelowna Falcons on June 12 to run the streak to a modest five games at the time. It was significant however, as the HarbourCats pulled into a share of first place with Kelowna, the first time the franchise had ever been in first place in its four year existence.

A win at home two nights later over the Gresham GreyWolves gave the HarbourCats sole possession of first place for the first time ever, and they have not looked back.

On June 17, they were ranked the No. 25 team in all of summer collegiate baseball, North America wide. A week later, they rose to No. 15.

On June 21, right-hander Will McAffer (North Vancouver, BC), a freshman out of South Dakota State and a 2015 draft pick of the Cincinnati Reds was named collegiate summer baseball’s National Pitcher of the Week and West Coast League Pitcher of the Week, after going 2-0 and throwing 11.2 shutout innings with 19 strikeouts. 

He was the second consecutive HarbourCat to win WCL Pitcher of the Week, after Dalton Erb took the honours the previous week.

Erb, a 6’8’’ righty from Chico State took a no-hitter into the eighth on Opening Night in Victoria, and days later was selected in the major league draft by the San Diego Padres and began his professional career. Erb was one of a franchise record eight current or former HarbourCats selected in this year’s draft. 

Infielder Cameron Cannon was selected in the 21st round by the Diamondbacks but elected to attend the University of Arizona this fall, thus remaining in Victoria for the entire season.

Prior to the season, the club dubbed 2016 their “Grand Slam Season” and it’s fairly safe to say it has not disappointed so far.

For the local ownership group which took control with the team in difficult circumstances prior to the 2015 season and has guided its remarkable growth on and off field in a relatively short period of time, for the front office members who have been involved since day one, and for the fans and season ticket holders who have faithfully supported since Nick Pivetta’s first pitch in June of 2013, this early season provides something to be proud of and appreciate what is happening, if only for a moment.

The job is still only beginning for the HarbourCats, led by second year head coach Graig Merritt (Maple Ridge, BC) a two-time Los Angeles Dodgers draft pick and Tampa Bay Rays minor league player who reached double-A after winning a NCAA Division II National Championship at Chico State.

If you think this team is satisfied, then you haven’t seen five minutes of a Merritt-led practice, with the former catcher instilling an up-tempo, high-urgency atmosphere, always pushing to find even the smallest ways to improve.

Merritt is assisted by former HarbourCats catcher, Blue Jays draft pick and former Illinois Fighting Illini, Kelly Norris-Jones (Victoria, BC) as well as University of Washington assistant Joe Meggs, a former Dodgers draftee and farmhand, and pitching coach Joe Fabre from junior college powerhouse, LSU-Eunice.

A 15-game win streak can never be predicted and no script or wild imagination could have dreamed up a better time or situations for this to happen to the four-year old franchise, Canada’s second member in the 11-team West Coast League, one of North America’s top summer-collegiate circuits.

The HarbourCats now sit at 15-3, first place in the WCL North division by a full four games over Walla Walla. This is extremely significant because this is the first season that the WCL has played with a split-season format, similar to the Northwest League (short-season) where the Vancouver Canadians had a championship three-peat in 2011-13.

A 54-game regular season is divided into two 27-game halves, with the winner of each half in each division (North and South) qualifying for the playoffs.

That means, Victoria is four games up with nine to play. Walla Walla and Kelowna can each finish with no more than 18 wins, so to win outright and avoid any tiebreaker procedures, which Victoria would lose to Walla Walla on head-to-head record, the HarbourCats “magic number” to clinch a first half title sits at four against each team; any combination of HarbourCats wins and Walla Walla/Kelowna losses.

The number to eliminate fourth place Bellingham is three, and sits at one to eliminate fifth place Wenatchee heading into play Tuesday.

The HarbourCats beat Wenatchee 9-4 on Tuesday to make it 16 in a row.

The two teams finsih their series on Wednesday at Paul Thomas Sr. Field. Walla Walla has two more against the 2015 league champion Bend Elks, and Kelowna is off until an all-important meeting with the HarbourCats in Victoria on Thursday.

That night is ‘Canada Day Eve’ Fireworks Night at Royal Athletic Park, and a near capacity crowd is expected with the club promoting a ‘Drive for 5,000’ fans. If the HarbourCats sweep Wenatchee, and Walla Walla loses Tuesday or Wednesday in Bend, the HarbourCats would have the chance to clinch the first half division title at home in Victoria on fireworks night.

A first half division title would give the HarbourCats an automatic bid into the WCL playoffs, which begin in early August. This too is abundantly significant when looking at the historical context.

To find the last Victoria-based baseball team to play a playoff game in the BC capital, you have to go all the way back to the 1952 Victoria Tyees of the Western International League, a class-A circuit in operation from 1952-54 after existing in multiple incarnations beginning in 1922. 

The Tyees went 94-55 in 1952, the best regular season record in the league, and went on to win the WIL championship.

There is a rich history of senior men’s fastball in Victoria, with 11 National Champions coming out of the city between 1975-2001.

This Thursday, June 30 could be the most significant game played in Victoria since 1952. All the pieces appear to be coming together for a special night; the fans’ first chance to salute their team on a record setting win streak, and potential to clinch Victoria’s first baseball playoff spot in over 60 years.

INF Jim Clark and LHP Jay Heard who made the majors were in playing-manager Cecil Garriott’s lineup, along with Bob Moniz, who hit .330, Don Pries, the former head of the Major League Scouting Bureau, batted .307, Granville Gladstone, who led with 15 homers. 

From the mound, Ben Lorino went 24-7, Heard was 20-12 and Cal McIrvin had a team low ERA of 2.28.          

Clark appeared in 12 games with the 1948 Washington Nationals, Heard pitched two games with the 1954 Baltimore Orioles and outfielder Garriott played six games with the 1946 Chicago Cubs.  

Billy Beane’s 2002 Oakland Athletics won 20 consecutive games but ultimately lost in the American League Division series in five games to the Minnesota Twins. Likewise, the 2011 Wenatchee was swept by the Walla Walla in the first round of the WCL playoffs.

That is the only part of the script that this HarbourCats squad will look to write differently.