The Victoria HarbourCats concluded a revealing season Sunday with a 6-4 West Coast League victory against the Bells before 1,130 fans at Joe Martin Field in Bellingham.
It was fitting the winning run came in the 10th inning from Alex DeGoti, the only three-year player in franchise history, as the HarbourCats finished in a league fifth-best 29-24 following their initial two seasons at well below .500.
“Alex is a special player,” said Victoria GM Jim Swanson, who last week enshrined the native of Miami as the inaugural inductee into the HarbourCats Ring of Honour at Royal Athletic Park.
Now it’s more about keeping the momentum from this season by re-recruiting some of the club’s emerging freshman and high school talent to return next season. Chief among those are Kevin Collard, who could be a high pick in the 2018 MLB draft, promising UCLA Bruins-bound Jake Pries, Boston Red Sox draft-pick Michael Gretler from the Oregon State Beavers and Cal Poly catcher Nick Meyer.
Three of the youthful foursome helped pound out the 36 home runs that led the WCL this season and were the second most in league history following the 44 the Walla Walla Sweets belted out last year. Collard had seven dingers this season, Pries two, Gretler one to go with the five each from P.J. Floyd and Nanaimo-product Griffin Andreychuk and Fresno State slugger Austin Guibor’s four among that impressive Victoria long-ball total.
“We did that with a young team. Put these guys back in there next summer with a year now under their belts, and we could end up looking pretty good,” said Swanson.
Swanson said 11 players have already committed for next season but wasn’t at liberty to announce them yet.
“We’re working with 25 [NCAA] schools,” he said.
“Obviously, word is getting around in college circles that we have an exceptional program and exceptional community. I wish we were preparing for the playoffs right now. But we’ve taken a lot of positive strides to change the culture on and off the field. And we’re not done yet. We’ve got to tighten a few things up, but we’re taking the right steps.”
Among those is continued community involvement, as the HarbourCats led the WCL in attendance for the second consecutive season with a per-game average of 1,910 fans in 2015.
A slow start to the season cost Victoria the playoff berth to which Swanson alluded, although they were mathematically still alive for the final wild-card berth right to the penultimate day of the regular season.
After beginning 8-16, the HarbourCats rallied to close the season 21-8, including an 8-2 run in the final 10 games. The latter stretch of the season included winning streaks of nine and six games.
“No one wanted to meet us in the playoffs,” said Swanson, of his team’s torrid close to the season.
But instead of being in the post-season, the HarbourCats have now all dispersed.
“Most were put on flights and are already gone,” said Swanson.
But not before a sweet Sunday farewell as DeGoti finished off his HarbourCats career by going three-for-five with three runs scored, while Ben Polshuk had two hits with a double and Floyd two hits. Sean Kennedy’s two innings of relief earned the win and a 3-2 record on the season.
The best-of-three playoff semifinals in the 12-team WCL begin tonight with the East Division-champion Kelowna Falcons (34-19) at West Division-champion Bellingham (33-21) and the South Division-champs Bend Elks (35-16) meeting the wildcard Corvallis Knights (32-22) in Oregon.
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