It was a soggy Tuesday night at Wilson’s Group Stadium at Royal Athletic Park.
But it didn’t rain on Matt Amrhein’s personal mound parade, although it almost did.
Trying to hold a 3-2 lead for his Victoria HarbourCats, the reliever out of Cal Baptist loaded the bases with one out in the top of the ninth before getting out the last two Ridgefield Raptors batters.
Amrhein took the save for his inning appearance. Luka Green, out of Pomona-Pitzer, got the win for his inning of work in the eighth.
It was a stellar mound night in total for the hosts. Victoria starter Dakota Hawkins went five innings and surrendered three hits, one run and five strikeouts with no walks.
The Victoria offence was provided by DH Kyler Harper, out of the NCAA Big 12 Baylor Bears, with a home run, a double and two RBIs.
The Raptors’ yeoman starter, Peter Allegro, from the NCAA University of Portland Pilots, went about as long as pitchers go in the West Coast League by giving the Raptors 72Ú3 innings with five hits and three runs allowed with eight strikeouts and just one walk.
The first-half North Division-champion HarbourCats are 1-1 in the second half and 19-10 overall. Ridgefield, a suburb of Vancouver, Washington, in Clark county is in its inaugural season as an expansion franchise. The Raptors (1-1 and 14-15) defeated Victoria 4-3 in the first game of the series Monday.
The set concludes tonight at RAP, but the teams haven’t finished with each other. In a scheduling quirk, the HarbourCats dip into Ridgefield for a game Thursday night en route to a three-game weekend set against the Elks beginning Friday in Bend, Oregon.
