A shaky start and end to Sunday’s West Coast League game left the Victoria HarbourCats on the wrong end of an 8-7 score against the visiting Port Angeles Lefties at Wilson’s Group Stadium.
The result made for a less-than-storybook end to the day, which began with the unveiling of a special banner honouring longtime Victoria umpire Doug Hudlin. Inducted posthumously into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame last year, Hudlin, who died in 2014, impacted thousands of young players in his 50-plus years officiating minor ball games around the region and beyond.
On the field, the Lefties scored three runs in the first and four in the ninth inning against reliever Po-Jui Huang to take an 8-7 lead, then Victoria stranded pinch hitter Nicolas Plaia on third base after he doubled. Port Angeles took two of three games from the HarbourCats over the weekend, winning the opener 10-4 Friday and dropping the middle game 6-5 on Saturday.
Michael Malinchak and Cade Brown led the Victoria charge Sunday with two hits and two runs batted in each. Tanner Haney also had two hits. Lefties reliever Baxter Halligan picked up the win, while Huang was tagged with the loss.
Victoria (6-6) travels to Bend, Ore. today for the first of three games against the Elks. The HarbourCats return home this Friday (June 22), playing the first of three weekend games against the Bellingham Bells.
