Mercado-Hood and DeGoti named First-Team All-WCL

Mercado-Hood ASG snub a distant memory
Photo by Brian Hayes

The West Coast League announced their end-of-season awards earlier today and both Hunter Mercado-Hood and Alex DeGoti of the HarbourCats were named First-Team All-WCL. The pair join former HarbourCat Alex Real as the only Victoria players to make the First All-Star team in the franchise’s brief history. Gabe Clark, Nathan Lukes and Mikey Wright received honourable mentions.

Mercado-Hood led the entire league in hits with 77, finished second in the batting race with a remarkable .385 mark and trailed only Vince Fernandez of the Pippins in RBI with 46. He also posted a slow-pitch like .452 on-base percentage, the fourth-best OBP in the WCL. Mercado-Hood also set new single-season team records for batting average, at-bats (200), hits and RBI.

DeGoti notched a .296 batting average and .373 on-base percentage to go along with four homers and 34 RBI in 49 games played at shortstop. The sophomore from Long Beach State anchored the HarbourCats middle infield and led all WCL shortstops in total chances (258), putouts (110) and double plays (35). His .953 fielding percentage was seventh-best among WCL shortstops with at least 20 games played at that position.

Yakima Valley’s Vince Fernandez was named league MVP after he set new single-season WCL records for home runs (10) and RBI (51). Pitcher of the Year went to Seth Martinez of the Bellingham Bells. Martinez posted a 6-0 record with a league-leading 2.07 ERA and an outrageously low WHIP of 0.79. He also held opponents to a feeble .147 batting average. Not surprisingly, Bellingham’s head coach Jeff James earned Coach of the Year honours after leading the Bells to their first WCL Championship in team history.

Congratulations to the winners, especially all of our HarbourCats!