It really couldn’t have gone any other way. It was Faith Night at Wilson’s Group Stadium at Royal Athletic Park on Friday night, so of course Matthew Christian was going to be the shining star.
And the Port Angeles Lefties outfielder didn’t disappoint as he belted a grand slam in a six-run second inning to lead the visitors to a 10-4 victory over the Victoria HarbourCats.
The slugger out of Campbell University in North Carolina, who was hitting .286 coming into the game, added another homer in the fourth and finished the night going 2-for-6 with five RBIs to help the Lefties cruise to an easy win in front of 1,645 fans at the opening game of a three-game West Coast League set at Wilson’s Group Stadium.
The Lefties (7-6) got to HarbourCats starter Sam Brunning almost immediately, with two hits in the first before blowing it open in the second. Brunning (0-1), making his second start of the season, went just 1 1/3 innings, giving up five hits, three walks and six earned runs.
The Lefties also got a three-hit effort from Jason Dicochea.
The HarbourCats’ offence was silent early on. Victoria (5-5) managed one hit in the first four innings against Port Angeles starter Avery Santos, who went five innings, scattering three hits for his first win of the season.
The highlight of the night for Victoria was a two-run home run by Nicky Gibbs in the ninth. Gibbs, coming off his freshman season at Florida Southern College, finished the night 2-for-2 with the two RBIs. Harrison Spohn added a sacrifice-fly RBI.
Owen Sharts, from Simi Valley High School in California and a Texas Rangers 32nd-round draft pick in this spring’s MLB draft, did impress on the hill for Victoria, going 2 2/3 innings of relief, allowing two hits, no runs and striking out eight.
The loss, combined with Bellingham’s 2-1 win over Portland on Friday night, drops the HarbourCats 1 1/2 games behind the Bells in the race for the North Division’s first-half title.
Game 2 of this series goes today at 6:35 p.m., with the series finale going Sunday at 1 p.m. at Wilson’s Group Stadium.
EXTRA BASES: Following the weekend set with Port Angeles, the HarbourCats will head out on the road Monday to start a three-game series against the Elks in Bend, Oregon. … The HarbourCats are nearing an attendance milestone as they close in on 300,000 fans (regular season, playoffs and non-league exhibition games) through the gate at Royal Athletic Park. Going into today’s game, the franchise attendance mark sat at 294,921.
