Seals Drop Season Opener in Edmonton
You would of thought a new theme park was opening in Edmonton on Thursday night as the city pulled out all the stops to celebrate their inagural game in the Golden Baseball League against the Victoria Seals. Helicopters, Fireworks even Steve Staios of the Edmonton Oilers was on hand at the new Telus Field to witness the Capitals beat the Seals 10-6 in the Seals first game in the GBL.
The Capitals are owned by NHL Oilers owner Daryl Katz; and several Oilers players were on hand for the half-hour opening ceremonies. Duane Quily of Qualicum Beach, daughter of Edmonton baseball legend John Ducey, threw out the honorary first pitch.
“We hit the ball hard early and had our chances,” said Victoria field boss Darrell Evans, former World Series champion with the Detroit Tigers.
“If we had scored then and played with the lead, things could have turned out differently. But we didn’t get that big hit when we had chances early. Then they found some holes later in the game and we didn’t. But in baseball, you don’t have time to sit around and worry about a loss. There’s always another game coming up the next day.”
The opener was tight until the bottom of the fifth inning with the Seals trailing 2-1. Victoria starter Travis Wade, a 12-season pro and former Triple-A player in the Houston Astros chain, seemed to have that inning under control with two outs and a man on first. That was until Gary Harris of the Capitals, a 2002 draft pick of the Seattle Mariners, launched a dangerous fly ball into deep centre field. Six-foot-three Victoria fielder Chris van Rossum looked to have made a spectacular over-the-shoulder catch to end the inning but the ball popped out of his glove to allow an Edmonton run to score and keep the inning alive. A single up the middle by Darryl Brinkley, a legend in minor-pro baseball, scored Harris to make it 4-1.
Wade will go down in Seals franchise history as delivering the first pitch ever for the team. He will also go down as drawing the first loss in club history, allowing seven hits and four runs with no strikeouts and one walk over five innings.
“It came down to a couple of breaks,” said Wade.
Wade was replaced by Chris Bodisbaugh, who gave up a three-run homer to six-season Triple-A player Brinkley in the seventh inning. Victoria was trailing by nine runs in the ninth inning when a two-out, bases-loaded double by van Rossum scored three runs and 2001 Mets draft pick Jamar Hill, scored van Rossum.
The Seals and Caps meet again Friday night at 7 p.m. PDT.
