Above Photo: Yakima Valley players celebrate a homerun with their team Cowboy hat on Friday Evening (Photo: Christian J Stewart)

Victoria, BC ~ The Yakima Valley Pippins used three big innings to push their win streak to six games while snapping the HarbourCats five game win streak in the meantime on Friday evening at Royal Athletic Park in WCL baseball action. 

Boxscore

Victoria had been riding a hot streak coming into Friday night’s game, but the Pippins offense proved to be too much to handle as they put four up on the board in the top of the third and fourth before adding five more in the top of the sixth to complete their offensive output for the night. The top of the third and fourth saw three homeruns for the Pippins between them, coming from; Jackson Reed, Josh Davis and Spencer Marenco which were all their first homers of the year.

Hank Dunn (#1) congratulates Spencer Marenco (right) on his first homerun of the year (Photo: Christian J Stewart)

Blake Leaverton got the start on the bump for Yakima Valley and started off shakily after surrendering two runs in the bottom of the first, highlighted by a Roberto Gonzalez two RBI single for the Cats. It was smooth sailing from there for Blake who then mowed through the Victoria lineup and left the game after six innings of six hit ball while only allowing those two runs. Harry Delyannis left the game after the third inning for Victoria after giving up three earned runs on three hits.

Victoria’s Harry Delyannis now sits second in the WCL with his 35 strikeouts (Photo: Christian J Stewart)

Victoria trailed 13-3 going into the bottom of the eighth and to their credit refused to go away. They would score four runs in the eighth after sending ten runners to the plate, including three hits and four walks. Russell Young came into the game for Jesse Brown behind the plate in the 7th and had himself a nice RBI single in the bottom of that eighth inning.

Josh Walker (#41) slides in safely during Friday night action at RAP (Photo: Christian J Stewart)

Colten Moore added a solo homerun in the bottom of the ninth which clattered off the scoreboard for his seventh long ball of the year and cut the Pippin lead to 13-8. This was unfortunately as close as they would come. Colten is now one homerun away from tying the franchise record of eight and sits tied for third in the WCL. 

Colten Moore continues to supply plenty of power for the HarbourCats, hitting his 7th homerun of the year (Photo: Christian J Stewart)

A bright spot for the HarbourCats was Haldon Craig. Victoria’s very own, who has been playing with the Victoria Collegiate Golden Tide, came into the game in the 7th inning and ended up pitching the final three frames without allowing a run. Haldon had seen some control issues in his prior outings but something seemed to be clicking and he looked very good on the Victoria mound. 

HarbourCats shortstop Noah Sudyka throws a ball to first (Photo: Christian J Stewart)

What’s Next?

Victoria will look for redemption against the Pippins tomorrow evening at 6:35 pm before closing out the series on Sunday afternoon at 1:05pm. Sunday will be a fun day at Wilson’s Group Stadium which sees the Cats annual “Bark in the Park” promotion, which invites all attendees to bring their canine companions into the park to enjoy the ball game. Don’t miss a second of the fun by getting your tickets now at harbourcats.com/tickets.