FINAL HOME SERIES OF 2018 BEGINS TONIGHT

APPLESOX (22-26, 11-11 second half)

v.s.

Victoria HarbourCats (25-23, 11-10 second half)

August 3-5, 2018

Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium

The Wenatchee AppleSox conclude their 2018 home schedule with a three-game set against the Victoria HarbourCats.

Victoria and Wenatchee opened the season against each other in British Columbia. The Sox took two-of-three by winning the first and final game of the series.

Probable Pitchers

Friday

AppleSox: Hunter Boyd (4-2, 4.28 ERA)

HarbourCats: Mason Shaw (3-1, 3.46 ERA)

Saturday

AppleSox: Alec Gomez (2-0, 3.15 ERA)

HarbourCats: TBD

Sunday

AppleSox: Connor McCord (2-5, 4.50 ERA)

HarbourCats: Aidan Goicovich (1-1, 9.00 ERA)

Promotions

Friday: Wenatchee Valley College Night

Saturday: Pepsi Night

Sunday: Final regular season home game, sponsored by Jiffy Lube

Scouting the Opponent

Offensively, home runs and stolen bases have been the names of the game for the HarbourCats. Victoria is second in home runs with 37 longballs and leads the West Coast League with 114 stolen bases.

The HarbourCats have 26 more stolen bases than the next-closest team. They have nine players with five-or-more stolen bases already this summer.

Like the AppleSox, the HarbourCats are on a bit of a roll lately. They have won five-of-their-last-six games and are also trying to use a late run to buoy themselves into a postseason berth.

Postseason Hopes Still Alive

It’s slim, but the AppleSox still have a chance at making the postseason. With six games remaining, they are 3.5 games behind first place Yakima Valley.

The HarbourCats did the AppleSox a favor by taking two-of-three from the Pippins. However, the HarbourCats also leap-frogged the AppleSox in the standings while doing so. Victoria is now third in the North division, half a game ahead of Wenatchee.

A series victory over Victoria would be preferred, but the Sox may need a sweep to stay alive in the postseason hunt. They will definitely need at least a couple more Yakima Valley losses as well.

Marenco Keeps Hitting

With a 3-for-4 performance on Thursday night, Mason Marenco extended his team-best hitting streak to eight games.

Marenco is batting .382 (13-for-34) during his longest hitting streak of the season. The streak began on July 15 and has now stretched into the final month of the season.

He’s recorded three consecutive multi-hit games in the last three contests and has raised his average from .284 before the streak started to .307 entering the weekend.

Spellacy Does It All Against Port Angeles

Whether it was at the plate or on the mound, Michael Spellacy had a huge impact on the past series with the Lefties.

In the series-opener, Spellacy tossed six scoreless innings to pick up his second win of the summer. In the next two games, he went a combined 6-for-8 at the plate and drove in three runs.

Both games were Spellacy’s first back-to-back three-hit games and marked the second time that he’d strung together consecutive multi-hit games this season.