By Christian J. Stewart
Starting pitcher Will McAffer threw a two-hitter over six full innings to lead the Victoria HarbourCats to a 6-0 win over the Cowlitz Black Bears in West Coast League action on Sunday afternoon at Victoria’s Royal Athletic Park.
The win, in front of a Father’s Day matinee crowd of 2,584, ran the team record and West Coast League leading win streak to 11 games, and was the team’s fourth straight series sweep, following an 0-3 start on the road in Walla Walla.
McAffer made another strong outing and had a no-hitter and perfect game going through four full innings, striking out the side in the first and adding four more to that total over that time. He was so dominant, that the only two hits the Black Bears would get off of him never actually made it out of the infield.
Offensively the HarbourCats got all the runs they would need in a three-run first inning thanks to a couple of Cowlitz two-out errors, the biggest on a Joe Prior grounder to second that allowed Griffin Andreychuk (walk) and Austin Guibor (single) to score. Brad Pluschkell then laced an RBI-single to score Jake Stone (who had walked) and the ‘Cats were up 3-0.
The win moves the HarbourCats record to 11-3 on the season and two-and-a-half games up on Bellingham for the division lead. The team now has a couple of days off before hosting the Victoria Selects in an exhibition game Wednesday evening, then play host to the Kitsap Blue Jackets on Friday night in game one of a three-game weekend set.
