Surrey pitcher first woman to join West Coast baseball league
Posted May 16, 2017 6:36 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SURREY (NEWS 1130) – A 19-year-old from Surrey has become the first woman to sign in the men’s West Coast Baseball League.
Claire Eccles, who plays for the UBC Thunderbirds and is one of the top pitchers for the Baseball Canada Women’s National Team, will join the Victoria Harbourcats as a left-handed relief pitcher for the 2017 season.
The West Coast League is a summer developmental league for some of the best collegiate level baseball players in North America. Eccles’ main pitches are her knuckleball and curveball.
Brad Norris-Jones, the General Manager of the Harbourcats, says Eccles offers a lot of different pitches.
“Her off-speed is one of the best I’ve seen in a long time, so she will mix up a lot of batters and once again, her compete level is par with this league.”
“She has a curve ball and she has a knuckle ball that she throws that is different than most batters will see. And she’s coming from the left side too so we don’t have enough lefties in the line up. We have three right now, Claire is our fourth leftie that we’ve signed, so you can never have enough lefties.”
Eccles says she’s excited to be on the team.
“I’m obviously not going to be the fastest pitcher in the league, but I have some good off-speed pitches that will keep hitters on their toes.”
“I think that’s the main goal here, no matter how well I perform, I think that there should just be more opportunity for women in this sport. There’s not a whole lot of knowledge about women in baseball, so I’m just hoping that it opens some eyes a little bit.”
The Harbourcats 2017 home opener is Monday, June 5th versus the Wenatchee Applesox at Victoria’s Royal Athletic Park.
