The Victoria HarbourCats are a summer-collegiate

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

team located in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...

. The HarbourCats play in the

West Coast League The West Coast League (WCL) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league founded in 2005, comprising teams from Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Alberta. The WCL was previously named the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League (WCCB ...

(WCL), a collegiate summer baseball league. The team's home games are played at Victoria's

Royal Athletic Park Royal Athletic Park is a stadium in Victoria, British Columbia and is used for baseball, soccer, softball and football, but also hosts special events, such as the annual Great Canadian Beer Festival and previously the Rifflandia Music Festival ...

. The HarbourCats were founded in 2012 as an expansion team. On October 12, 2012, the team announced it would be called the HarbourCats after a public naming contest was held that received more than 600 submissions.

History

2013

The Victoria HarbourCats entered the league with play in the 2013 season and went 22–32, missing the playoffs. A total of 38,793 fans attended home games.

2014

The Victoria HarbourCats went 25–29 in their 2nd season of play in the WCL. Victoria set the record for the most at-bats by a whole team having 1937 at bats in just one season. Victoria drew 45,571 fans through the gates in 30 home games, averaging about 1,576 fans a night. This put Victoria first in WCL attendance in the 2014 season.

2015

The HarbourCats went 29–24 in their 3rd season of play in the WCL. Victoria led the league with a team total of 36 home runs on the season. Victoria drew 49,647 fans through the gates in 26 home games, averaging 1,910 fans a night, a mark which led the West Coast League in attendance for the second straight season.

2016

The HarbourCats set a WCL record for wins in a single season, finishing with a 40-14 regular season mark. They won the WCL's North Division First Half Pennant with a 23–4 record, qualifying for the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, and the first time for a Victoria-based baseball team since 1954. The pennant was clinched in Victoria on June 30 in front of a WCL-record crowd of 5,133. Between June 5 and July 1, the team won a WCL-record 19 consecutive games. Attendance increased for the fourth straight year to an average of 2,239 per game, which ranked ninth in North America among summer league clubs.

2017

The HarbourCats finished 29-25 and reached the playoffs for the second consecutive season, winning the WCL's North Division Second Half Pennant on the season's final day. They would go on to win the franchise's first-ever playoff game and series over the

Kelowna Falcons The Kelowna Falcons are a collegiate summer baseball team located in Kelowna, British Columbia. The Falcons are members of the West Coast League and play their home games at Elks Stadium. History The franchise traces its roots back to the Kelow ...

, qualifying for their first-ever WCL Championship Series, where they would fall in three games to the

Corvallis Knights The Corvallis Knights, founded as the Aloha Knights, are a collegiate summer baseball team located in Corvallis, Oregon. Founded in 1990 in Beaverton by Dan and his brother Joe Segel, the Knights moved to Corvallis from Gresham in 2007. They p ...

2018

The HarbourCats finished 27-27 and failed to reach the playoffs. With an attendance of 3,076 at their final home game, the HarbourCats beat their own WCL attendance regular-season attendance of 60,466, by welcoming a total of 62,599 fans through the gates of Wilson's Group Stadium in 2018.

2019

The HarbourCats 2019 regular season, their seventh, began in June 2019. On July 7, 2019, the team qualified for the playoffs, their third playoff appearance in franchise history. The team beat the Wenatchee AppleSox 2–1 in games in the northern division series, and advanced to the WCL championship final series versus the Corvallis Knights, but lost that series 2–1 in games.

2020

The HarbourCats 2020 regular season, their eighth, was scheduled to begin at home on June 5, 2020. The worldwide COVID-19 crisis forced the cancellation of the 2020 WCL season.

Ownership

Founder and original owner John McLean, who had changed GMs with Holly Jones leaving and Jim Swanson coming in, would lose the team in a civil claim, part of a larger lawsuit involving his other interests, in BC Supreme Court in the Fall 2014, taken over by the Bhootan Group, led by Matthew Stoudt. Bhootan would then sell the team to local ownership led by John Wilson, Jim Swanson, Ken Swanson and Rich Harder, who took care of local debts. In February 2019, team ownership announced plans to operate an additional WCL team in the Nanaimo market, playing out of Serauxmen Stadium, in 2021. Lights and other stadium upgrades are expected to be completed before the new team can play.

Notable alumni

On April 30, 2017,

Nick Pivetta Nicholas Johncarlo Pivetta (born February 14, 1993) is a Canadian professional baseball pitcher for the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB). The Washington Nationals selected Pivetta in the fourth round of the 2013 MLB draft. He was tra ...

became the first former HarbourCats player to reach the major leagues when the right-hander started for the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

against the Washington Nationals. Following 2017, 40 HarbourCats players have been selected in the MLB draft. As of 2017, 14 were playing in an MLB team's organization. In the early part of the 2021 season, two former HarbourCats made their debuts -

Alex De Goti Alexander De Goti (born August 19, 1994) is an American professional baseball infielder in the Minnesota Twins organization. The Astros drafted him in the 15th round of the 2016 Major League Baseball draft and he made his MLB debut in 2021. Car ...

for the

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston, Texas. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division, having moved to the division in 2013 after ...

and Andrew Vaughn for the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

References

External links

Official website
{{Victoria Sports Amateur baseball teams in Canada Baseball teams in British Columbia HarbourCats Baseball teams established in 2012 2012 establishments in British Columbia