Above Photo: Jake Skipworth bats a ball to left field during the harbourCats loss to Wenatchee (Photo: Christian J Stewart)

Victoria, BC ~ After some wacky back and forth baseball at Wilson’s Group Stadium, the Victoria HarbourCats ultimately fell 8-6 at the hands of the AppleSox after Wenatchee scored two in the top of the tenth.

FULL BOX SCORE

Victoria started with a bang, scoring one in the first inning to ignite the crowd and then three in the bottom of the third inning which was fueled by a two run double off the bat of Joseph Redfield that scored Grady Morgan and Josh Rolling. Joseph continues to be a constant threat in the HarbourCat lineup as his average has moved up to .358. Those two RBIs also give him 11 on the season which is good enough for top five in the WCL.

Joseph Redfield (#15) gets high fives from his teammates after scoring a run (Photo: Christian J Stewart)

The Apple Sox scored one in the top of the second and one in the top of the third as well and at the end of four the Cats led 4-3 after scoring in the bottom half of the fourth.

Finding the strike zone started to become a problem for Victoria in the fifth and sixth innings, which seems to be a recurring theme this summer, and the HarbourCats would give up two runs in both the top of the fifth and sixth innings giving Wenatchee a one run lead. That is when Tyler Pettit – the only returning HarbourCat from the 2019 season –  stepped to the plate and sent a ball over the left field fence to tie the game.

Roberto Gonzalez gets his first league action during Tuesday nights loss (Photo: Christian J Stewart)

Both teams were then quiet until the tenth when Wenatchee was able to score two runs on Flynn Ridley, who had retired five in a row before giving up five straight base runners. The HarbourCats then went quietly in the bottom half, going down in order to drop the first game of the series.

At the end of the game several players got into a bit of a dust up, as both teams were animated throughout the game with insults flying between dugouts. The teams got involved in a scuffle as the game ended promising for a very entertaining next two days of baseball. 

Grady Morgan continues to be a star in the Cats lineup picking up another hit this evening (Photo: Christian J Stewart)

Colton Moore was yet again threatening at the plate as he can’t seem to be stopped as of late. He recorded his 4th straight multi hit game while recording two runs batted in giving him 12 on the season which obviously is also top five in the league. 

Colton Moore sends a ball into left field for a base hit (Photo: Christian J Stewart)

Cooper Crompton got the nod on the bump this evening and had himself an evening that every baseball coach could hope for. That is to give your team a chance to win and that is exactly what Cooper did. He was also fairly unlucky early on as the Apple Sox pushed a run across in the top of the second and third innings yet interestingly enough they didn’t manage a hit in either of those innings. A catcher’s interference, balk, passed ball and sac fly accounted for one. That train of events just going to show how truly unlucky Cooper was early. The other run came unearned after an error to HarbourCats shortstop Luke Cheng.

Cooper Crompton with a solid effort on the mound for Victoria Tuesday evening (Photo: Christian J Stewart)

What’s Next?

These teams seem to be forming a very heated rivalry early on in the season so be sure the come out to Royal Athletic Park over the next two days to see how this plays out. Get your tickets at harbourcats.com/tickets.