'Cats take down Falcons again

Austin Russell photo by Brian Hayes

The HarbourCats continued their winning ways with a 7-2 victory over the hapless Kelowna Falcons on Saturday night, raising their record to 6-1 on the season. The win preserves Victoria’s one-game lead over the second-place Bellingham Bells in the North Division standings. Perhaps more importantly, since the top two teams in each division make the playoffs, the HarbourCats maintain a three-game lead over the third-place Walla Wall Sweets.

Scott Kuzminsky was the hero for Victoria in their first-ever road game, as he picked up the win by pitching seven scoreless innings. It was Kuzminsky's first start in over two years. The offense was led once again by Alex (“The Big Cat”) Real, who saw his average “drop” to a league-leading .563 after going two-for-five with three RBI. Austin Russell had a pair of hits and RBI to raise his average to .321, and every ‘Cat in the lineup with the exception of Jack Graham registered a hit.

Connor Russell (0-1, 1.88) takes to the mound this evening against Kelowna’s Caleb Olson (0-1, 4.76). First pitch is at 6:05 PM with the pre-game show on the internet broadcast starting at 5:45.

HarbourCatNip

• Six more of Victoria's regulars will join the team on Tuesday in Bellingham.
• The two HarbourCats from the UCSB Gauchos, Connor Baits and Robby Nesovic, will join the team on Wednesday. Both will be impact players for Victoria.
• The HarbourCats released the following players on Saturday: Clark McKitrick, Ryan Adkins, Jackson McCuaig, Brendon Magee, Erik Phillips, Daniel Bednarski and Daryl Blaskovich. All with the exception of McKitrick were 10-day players.
• Ty Russell and Chase Cuckovich were the only original 10-day players to remain with the team for the Kelowna trip. This humble blogger is hoping that Ty Russell remains with the team for the duration of the season -- he's currently second on the team with an incredible .588 on-base percentage. He'd be a valuable contributor off the bench, especially in late-inning situations when the HarbourCats are in a desperate need for base runners.
• Pitchers Jornh Kaluzniak (Vancouver Island Baseball Institute) and Danny Moore (Thompson Rivers University) were signed to 10-day contracts yesterday.