HarbourCats player updates - Pac-12 edition

Michael Gretler

Week Two of the NCAA baseball season is in the books, so it’s time for another update on a few of the players who’ll be suiting for the Victoria HarbourCats in 2015. In this edition, we’ll take a look at our guys in the Pac-12 Conference.

The mighty Oregon State University baseball program took a big hit last summer when seven of its players signed with MLB clubs, but the Beavers are blessed with an outstanding crop of freshmen players and are reloading in 2015 instead of rebuilding. OSU was ranked 26th in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll at the beginning of this season, and they look to have a good shot at qualifying for their seventh consecutive NCAA tournament.

One of those impressive Oregon State freshmen, Michael Gretler, is a future HarbourCat. Gretler got his collegiate career off to a great start by getting a base hit in his first plate appearance, a single against the tough University of New Mexico Lobos on February 15th. He has started three of the Beaver’s first eight games at third base, going 4-for-10 at the dish with two RBI, a walk and three runs scored. Gretler should put up some very nice offensive numbers for the HarbourCats this summer.

Zach Bonneau

After missing the first five games of the season, Gabe Clark has picked up right where he left off last summer. In three games this weekend, Clark went 4-for-14 (.286) with a homer and five RBI as the team’s Designated Hitter. While this kind of production from the big slugger is pretty much what we’ve come to expect, his first at-bat of the year was a bit of a surprise -- a triple into right-centre field. Of course, we shouldn’t be too shocked that he legged out a triple, because the “sneaky-quick” Clark did go five-for-five in the stolen base department with the HarbourCats this past summer.

The University of Washington Huskies, a team with a pair of future HarbourCats, were ranked 44th in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll. Catcher Zach Bonneau sat out the first six UW games, but the sophomore from Spokane, Washington was a late-inning replacement at catcher in each of the last two days. Bonneau walked in his only plate appearance on Saturday and then stroked a single in his sole at-bat on Sunday for the first NCAA hit of his career.

Sophomore Henry Baker has only made one appearance on the mound for the Huskies so far this season, a start that lasted only ⅓ of an inning on February 16th. Baker started the game by hitting a batter, inducing a flyball out and then issuing a pair of walks to load the bases, which led to a quick hook from UW head coach Lindsay Meggs. Thankfully all three inherited runners were stranded, so Baker still holds a 0.00 ERA. Hopefully the 6-2, 234 lb. southpaw sees some game action in the upcoming week.

HarbourCatNip

• Victoria native Chris Fougner is starting to heat up at the plate for Salt Lake Community College. Fougner, who is the Bruins’ starting right fielder, went four-for-eight with a walk, four RBI and a pair of steals in the last three games with available box scores (February 14-16). He is now hitting .320 with four RBI in 25 at-bats this season. Fougner also made the first mound appearance of his collegiate career on February 16th against Utah State University Eastern, throwing a scoreless inning of relief and surrendering only a single hit.
• Nanaimo’s Alex Rogers made his third start of the season for Trinidad State Junior College on Thursday. Unfortunately, it was the second consecutive poor start for Rogers, as he gave up four hits and three earned runs in two innings against Luna Community College. He now has a 5.25 ERA and 1.50 WHIP in 12 innings pitched this season.
• Griffin Andreychuk went three-for-five with a run scored and a stolen base on Sunday, but it wasn’t enough to snap Seattle U’s lengthy losing streak. Andreychuk, who has been moved from leadoff to the number two spot in the order, is hitting .250 with three RBI in 32 at-bats this season. The 1-8 Redhawks have only scored six runs in their last five games and sport an unsightly .212 team batting average.