By Pierre LaBossiere

Peninsula Daily News

VICTORIA, B.C. — The Lefties missed out on a chance to get into a first-place tie in the West Coast League’s North Division as the HarbourCats blew open a tough pitchers’ duel in the eighth inning, going on to win 4-1.

The Lefties (5-6) tumbled all the way from second place to fifth with the loss, but are just one game out of first place in the tightly logjammed North Division.

Kieran Shaw was outstanding on the mound for the Lefties, going five innings and giving up just one earned run on nine hits and no walks.

The Lefties were trailing 2-0 in the eighth when they broke through for a run. Kevin Kendall hit a single to left field, then Mitchell Hagan drove him in with a double to center to make it 2-1. With the tying run on second base and one out, the Lefties were not able to get Hagan home.

In the bottom of the eighth, the HarbourCats scored two runs without a hit. Victoria scored on a hit batsman, three straight walks and then another hit batsman to make it 4-1.

Three HarbourCats pitchers combined for a five-hitter with AJ Block getting the win.

Kendall was 1 for 3 in the game with a run scored while Hagan was 1 for 3 with a double and an RBI. Michael Ciancio also hit a double for the Lefties.

The Lefties played Victoria Tuesday night after press deadline, then they have a long road trip down to Corvallis to play the Knights at 6:40 p.m. today. Check the Lefties website at www.leftiesbaseball.com or Lefties Facebook page for radio and TV information.

Around the league

The Lefties’ Austyn Tengan had a single in Monday’s game and is batting .480 in 25 at-bats. The Wenatchee AppleSox had 26 hits and scored 25 runs in a 25-8 win over Yakima Valley on Monday. The Lefties have not gotten a chance yet to face the HarbourCats’ female knuckleballer Claire Eccles, who has received a lot of media attention in both Canada and America.

Victoria 4, Port Angeles 1

Lefties 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 — 1 5 0

Victoria 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 X — 4 11 1

WP: Block, LP: Shaw, SV: Kuhn

Pitching

Lefties — Shaw 5IP, 9H, 1ER, 0BB, 1K; Hooper 2IP, 2H, 1ER, 1K; Welander 0.2IP, 2ER, 3BB, 2K; Mundt 0.1IP, 0H.

HarbourCats — Block 5IP, 1H, 1BB, 4K; Prokopis 2IP, 2H, 2K; Kuhn 2IP, 2H, 1ER3K.

Hitting

Lefties — Hagan 1-3, 2B, RBI; Kendall 1-3, R; Ciancio 103 2B, BB; Elske 1-3, Tengan 1-3.

HarbourCats — Weiss 3-5; Bonner 203, RBI; Collard 2-3, 2B, RBI, HBP; Garella 103, R; Shipley 104, R, RBI; Rios 0-2, 2HBP.