Above Photo: Colton Moore celebrates his homerun with his teammates (Photo: Christian J Stewart)

FULL BOX SCORE

Victoria, BC ~ The Victoria HarbourCats used a strong eighth and ninth inning effort from Flynn Ridley to close out a 12-11 victory over the visiting Cowlitz Black Bears Tuesday evening in West Coast League at Wilson’s Group Stadium at Royal Athletic Park. The Cats also used two home runs, one off the bat of Colton Moore and one from Jake Skipworth to continue to swing the bats very well.

Luke Cheng makes a throw across the diamond early in Tuesday nights game, one of many spectacular defensive plays he made on the night (Photo: Christian J. Stewart)

Victoria jumped out on the front foot as Cooper Crompton was very good early on the mound and shut down the first eight Bear batters that he faced. He would end up running into a little bit of trouble in the third inning, giving up three runs in the top half of the inning and would also give up two in the top half of the fifth. A solid performance for the Langley native playing at Iowa Western Community College.

Cooper Crompton throws a pitch during Victoria’s 12-11 victory (Photo: Christian J Stewart)

The HarbourCats responded by scoring one in the bottom of the first and second before sending 12 runners to the plate in the third and scoring seven runs. That third inning rally was highlighted by an absolute laser over the scoreboard in left field by Colton Moore for his team leading fourth home run of the season.

Colton Moore (6) celebrates his moonshot to left with his teammate Michael Tsoulakas (Photo: Christian J Stewart)

As seems to be the case every night though,  that lead would not be safe as the Black Bears would have themselves their own big inning in the top of the sixth, scoring four runs and at that point putting them within one at 10-9. Calyn Halvorsen who is having himself a year that is the stuff of legends, was the big bat of that inning with his two run single that was laced into the left center field gap. 

Victoria responded right away, however, as Jake Skipworth took a down and in fast ball over the left field fence for a two run homerun to extend the lead to three in the bottom of the sixth. 

Jesse Brown has a smile on his face after reaching second safely in the early goings of Tuesday night’s game (Photo: Christian J Stewart)

Things became scary in the eighth when Colwitz’ John Oleson’s single would plate two runners putting the Black Bears once more within one, but that would be as close as they would come as Flynn Ridley came out of the HarbourCat bullpen to shut down the rally and close out the game with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

Roberto Gonzalez picks up an RBI double in the first inning Tuesday (Photo: Christian J Stewart)

Also contributing to the HarbourCats offence on the night were Josh Walker and Joseph Redfield, with three hits each,

Joseph Redfield would get the HarbourCats with a first inning single, his first of three hits on the night (Photo: Christian J. Stewart)

What’s Next?

The HarbourCats will look to continue their mini two game win streak tomorrow evening at Royal Athletic Park for the second of three against the Black Bears. That game will commence at 6:35 and so will Thursday night’s game, which is the second of three fireworks celebration games this summer. Get your tickets now at harbourcats.com/tickets.