It wasn’t the prettiest way to win a baseball game, but the Victoria HarbourCats don’t care because, for the first time since 2019, they’re headed to the West Coast League championship game.
The HarbourCats fell behind 5-0 early to the Bellingham Bells in the one-game North Division final Saturday night at Wilson’s Group Stadium at Royal Athletic Park, but clawed their way back thanks to walks, hit batters, sacrifice flies and a couple of timely singles to take the lead in the fourth inning en route to a 7-6 victory in front of a jubilant crowd of 3,672.
The HarbourCats will now get on the Coho ferry and head to Corvallis, Oregon, to take on the six-time defending champion Knights on Monday night in another one-game, winner take all affair. The Knights knocked off the Portland Pickels 4-1 in the South Division final in Corvallis on Saturday.
At Royal Athletic, the Bells jumped all over HarbourCats starter Logan MacNeil early with three runs in the first thanks to a three-run home run from big-hitting outfielder Andrew Valdez.
They added two more in the top of second as MacNeil issued a pair of walks. HarbourCats bench boss Todd Haney had seen enough after that and went to his bullpen early, and that set the stage for reliever Jake Finkelstein to come in and light spark under the home team.
Finkelstein, who plays his NCAA ball at Montana State, went 5 1/3 innings allowing just two hits and no runs, giving a HarbourCats team that led the league in hits a chance to come to life.
And that they did. Victoria scored twice in the second inning and then took control in the fifth sparked by a two-RBI single from shortstop Hudson Shupe.
And when Finkelstein finally ran out of gas, Haney turned to Josh Berenbaum, and he was … the bomb. Berenbaum, who plays his college ball at the University of Fraser Valley, silenced the Bells, finishing with an inning and two-thirds of no-hit ball, before giving way to lefty Dustin Davidson with no out and two on in the top of the ninth. Davidson got the only batter he faced out, but not before a run scored from third on a wild pitch, so Haney turned to Brett Harvey for the last two outs, and that’s exactly what the righty from the University of Puget Sound got, sending the HarbourCats to Corvallis for a shot at the franchise’s first WCL title.
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