The assurance in signing a junior national team ball player is that you know he has already been well vetted by Baseball Canada.
The Victoria HarbourCats have signed pitcher Gavin Pringle of Duncan, their seventh current or former Canadian junior national team player inked for the 2021 West Coast League season. Pringle joins Declan Dutton, Russell Young, Steven Moretto, Josh Walker, Noah Takacs and Giordano Mezzomo as Cats players to have worn the Maple Leaf in international play as juniors.
A physical presence at six-foot-two and 220 pounds, Pringle came out of the Victoria Eagles of the B.C. Premier Baseball League and has played in the Canada Cup. The Cowichan Secondary School graduate recorded his fastball best speed of 91 mph in November and made his NCAA debut last week for Hawaii Pacific University.
“We are mining Canadian players,” said HarbourCats general manager and managing partner Jim Swanson.
That certainly won’t hurt if the Canada-U.S. border remains closed. The WCL has 10 teams in Washington state and Oregon. The expansion Nanaimo NightOwls, Kamloops NorthPaws and Edmonton Riverhawks have joined the HarbourCats and Kelowna Falcons as the five Canadian teams in the collegiate league, which features top NCAA talent in summer club play.
“The signs are getting better and better that we can have a full season against all teams in the league,” said Swanson, noting the encouraging vaccine rollout timeline.
“Time is on our side.”
The HarbourCats are set to open on June 1 in Edmonton. Nanaimo is scheduled to play its first game in franchise history that same day against the AppleSox in Wenatchee, Washington.
“We continue to be impressed by the level of baseball talent available right here in British Columbia,” said Cats hitting coach and director of player development Curtis Pelletier, in a statement.
“Adding Gavin Pringle to the list of local players we have already signed is a huge bonus for us. We expect him to give us a number of quality innings this season.”
The HarbourCats further fortified the mound this week by also signing pitchers Braeden Gowdy and Micah Wallette, both from Chico State, and towering six-foot-seven A.C. Plum from the Rice Owls.
“With his size, [Plum] could be dominating,” said Pelletier.
Former WCL players have been selected in the first round of the MLB draft in each of the past four years. Ninety alumni or then-current WCL players were selected in the 2019 MLB draft and 73 in 2018.
