Springfield Sees Late Lead Slip, Suffer Heartbreaking Loss to the HarbourCats

(Photo by Alan Fox)

By Knight Jarecki

VICTORIA, British Columbia — On the verge of their first series victory, the Springfield Drifters (4-10, 1-5)  saw their two-run lead evaporate late as the Victoria HarbourCats (6-9, 4-5) scored two runs in the ninth and one run in the 10th to walk off the Drifters 7-6 and even the series 1-1 on Saturday at Royal Athletic Park.

“It was a difficult game to lose.” Pitching Coach Dean Stiles said. “It was kind of ours to lose, and despite not playing particularly well, we were still in that game.”

In a game that saw three ties and five lead changes, the Drifters found themselves leading 6-4 with two strikes and two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, but a two-RBI single by Victoria’s Declan Brown knotted the score at six. Springfield struck out three times offensively in the 10th, and Victoria’s Matthew Westley hit a walk-off single on a blooper to right to give the Drifters their third extra-inning loss and fifth one-run loss of the season. 

“At some point, at some point the growing pains have to turn into experience, and experience has to play out on the field,” Stiles said. “I told these guys tonight regarding these close games, these nail-biters, whatever you want to call them, they'll be good for you. Maybe not right now, but they'll be good for you when you get back to school in the fall or spring because you've already been kind of battle-tested, and you know what's coming and you know how to deal with this stuff.”

Springfield took a 1-0 lead thanks to an error by Victoria in the top of the second. Victoria responded with two runs in the third and one run in the fourth off Drifters starter Ethan Atchley to give the Harbourcats a 3-1 lead through four. Atchley, a right-hander from Rice who led the Owls with 24 appearances out of the bullpen this spring, made his second start of the season with the Drifters on Saturday and delivered four innings of three-run baseball, striking out three and walking just two. 

“He’s being groomed to be a starter at Rice,” Stiles said. “ The last time he went out, he threw 60 pitches. Tonight he was at 69. Got a lot of ground balls; really only hard contact one time on a ball hit to the gap. He did what we asked him, and he's a competitor. And as I said, he's kind of working toward that starting situation. So he's doing a nice job for us in that sense.” 

In the fifth, Springfield tied the game at three after an RBI single by Mana Heffernan and a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch by Peyton Tyner. 

The game remained even until the eighth, when Bushnell’s Broderick Buhr belted his first home run of the season to give the Drifters a one-run lead.

“He got into that really well and obviously at an opportune time,” Stiles said. “He's coming off the bench to do that too. He was ready when his number was called. And so those are things that he can build on when he goes back to school.”

Buhr, who originally signed a 10-day contract with the Drifters, now is hitting .333 with three doubles and one home run across 12 starts this season. 

After an error tied the game in the bottom of the eighth, Springfield retook the lead in the ninth, thanks to a couple of RBI singles by pinch hitters Jalen Riddle and Drew Holman. 

“I took Drew out with the bases loaded last night, and he wasn't happy about it,” Stiles said. “And tonight he had another situation where his base hit puts us up by two late in the game, and we had a chance to win then. So kudos to him. He learned from that last situation. He didn't drag his blanket, and he went out and got a base hit. And that's what it's all about.”

Lane Infielder Austin Takahashi led the team with two hits in the one-run loss. It was his third multi-hit performance in his last five starts.

The Drifters and HarbourCats will play at 1:05 p.m. on Sunday in the series finale. The rubber match will be streamed on the HarbourCats YouTube channel, with live stats available at WCLStats.com.

The Drifters will return for a five-game homestand beginning on June 17, with a non-league game against the Cascade Collegiate Showcase Team. Tickets available online at driftersbaseball.com.