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Two Victoria-area teams reach playoff finals in lacrosse, baseball

Greater Victoria is being treated to a feast of major sporting events this month, including having two teams in playoff finals.

Greater Victoria is being treated to a feast of major sporting events this month, including having two teams in playoff finals.

The Victoria Shamrocks are in the Western Lacrosse Association final for the seventh consecutive season and Victoria HarbourCats in the West Coast League baseball final for the second time in three seasons.

A total of 1,794 fans crossed the turnstiles Friday night into Royal Athletic Park for Game 1 of the HCats’ WCL final against the defending-champion Corvallis Knights, who are the WCL’s equivalent of the New York Yankees. That was after about 5,000 combined fans took in the final two games of the HarbourCats’ 2-1 semifinal series victory over the Wenatchee AppleSox at Royal Athletic Park.

About 2,000 fans, meanwhile, watched the Shamrocks battle the defending-champion Maple Ridge Burrards in Game 1 of the WLA final at The Q Centre.

Add in the more than 4,000 auto-racing fans expected tonight at Western Speedway for the 58th Daffodil Cup, a premier race that has in the past featured Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 500 racers from around the Pacific Northwest, including the late Island legends Billy Foster and Roy Smith.

Pacific FC of the pro soccer Canadian Premier League said more than 3,500 tickets have been sold for next Saturday’s game against Valour FC of Winnipeg in which the completed Westhills Stadium will officially be opened with special ceremonies.

For good measure, the Westshore Rebels take their 2-0 B.C. Football Conference record into Kelowna today against the Okanagan Sun in a battle of undefeated teams.

All this comes on the heels of Island athletes winning 17 medals in the just-completed Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru, as a prelude to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

And fans need not be deprived of their local-teams fix, even on the road. Big-screen watching parties are being held.

Baseball fans can catch Game 2 of the HarbourCats-Knights WCL final tonight, and Game 3 if needed Sunday, from Corvallis, Oregon, at the Yates Street Taphouse.

Lacrosse fans can watch Game 2 of the Shamrocks-Burrards WLA final Sunday from Cam Neely Arena in Maple Ridge at Browns Socialhouse in Langford.

Soccer fans can view today’s PFC game in Toronto against York9 at Darcy’s Pub locations downtown and in Langford, and at the Strathcona Hotel.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com