Summer Collegiate

Former impact player for HarbourCats and Dawgs calls it a career

Published

5 years ago

March 7, 2021

Jason Peters

Photography by Christian J. Stewart

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It wasn’t one of those lightning-bolt moments.

Michael Gretler’s decision to retire from professional baseball was more of an ongoing process. The former Pittsburgh Pirates prospect, who spent two formative summers playing on Canadian soil, listened to what his mind and body were telling him.

As hard as it was, he listened.

“It was definitely a decision I did not take lightly,” the 25-year-old said from his home in Seattle, just a short, scenic ferry ride away from Victoria, where he spent the 2015 summer season as a gem of a third baseman for the HarbourCats of the West Coast League. The following year, he took his talents to the Western Canadian Baseball League, where he claimed the most outstanding player award with the Okotoks Dawgs.

Michael Gretler was a standout third baseman for the Victoria HarbourCats in the summer of 2015.

“Baseball has done so much for me and it’s going to continue to be a part of my life but there are things in the working world and business world that I want to do and want to put on my resume as time goes on,” Gretler added. “And then – really – playing in the minor leagues, it’s a grind, man. It’s not a lot of pay, long bus rides, being away from your family and friends for an extended period of time. All those factors played a role (in my decision to retire) and I think it kind of boils down to the fact that if you’re not fully committed to something, and your heart and your passion isn’t fully there… it’s a grind as it is but then you lay those factors on top of that grind and it becomes much more difficult.”

Gretler officially hung up his spikes on Feb. 11, 2020. As a member of the Pirates organization he played two seasons in the minors, his last team the single-A Greensboro Grasshoppers of the South Atlantic League. Gretler also toiled for the West Virginia Black Bears and Bradenton Marauders.

The Pirates thought so highly of Gretler that they chose him twice in the MLB draft – in the 39th round in 2017 and the 10th round in 2018. They gave him a spring training call-up in March of 2019.

A product of Bonney Lake High School in the Greater Seattle area, Gretler was such a sizzling baseball commodity that he was actually drafted three times. The Boston Red Sox were the first MLB team to lay claim when they picked him in the 39th round in 2014. Gretler deferred the first two times in favour of attending, and then remaining at, Oregon State University, where he was a beloved member of the OSU Beavers from 2014 to 2018.

During his time with Victoria, Gretler would appear in 32 games, hitting .236, with one home run and 12 RBI, but also walking 23 times and scoring 20 runs.

When Gretler reflects on his career, he has no trouble picking out his highlight: going out as a champion in his final game with the Beavers. In that 2018 NCAA Division 1 season, OSU advanced all the way to the College World Series in Nebraska and eventually defeated the University of Arkansas Razorbacks in a best-of-three final that went the distance. Arkansas prevailed 4-1 in the opener, Oregon State stayed alive with a 5-3 extra-innings victory in Game 2 and then won 5-0 in the clincher.

“Obviously the individual accolades of playing college baseball or being drafted are great but that team camaraderie – as much time as you spend with those guys, you form some really special bonds that are going to go on for the rest of our lives – and being able to experience winning the College World Series with them was kind of like the perfect mountaintop for my career,” said Gretler, who was OSU’s starter at third base. “And it happened to be the last game of my college career so it was the cherry on top of what’s been a really, really exciting career.”

Gretler made his playing debut with the Beavers in February of 2015 and, later that year, arrived in Victoria for his first crack at baseball north of the border. While he’d been to Victoria a couple times before, the notion of living and playing in Canada left him feeling a little uneasy. But joining the HarbourCats, he quickly discovered, was the closest thing to professional baseball he had yet tasted. His nervousness evaporated and he made the absolute most of his opportunity.

Gretler at OSU, with the HarbourCats in 2015 and with his last pro team, the Greensboro Grashoppers, in 2019

“I remember it being the first experience of that challenge of playing baseball every single day,” he said. “Because in college, you play a weekend series, you get a couple days off, you might have a midweek (game) and another day off, and you might practice here and there. But the game every single day is why baseball is such a grind and such a challenge – the mental side of that and the physical side of that where you’re playing 16 games in a row before you get an off-day and your body is hurting after Day 8 and you’ve still got eight more games to go. It was a great introduction. And what I think is so great about the league, it gives guys that experience at a younger age that can then prepare them for hopefully a career in the minor leagues.”

Playing with and against such high calibre players is another thing Gretler remembers about his stint with the HarbourCats. And then there was the buzz of home games, routinely held in front of packed stands at Royal Athletic Park.

A very popular HarbourCat, one of Gretler’s images has adorned the front windows of the HarbourCats offices since late 2015.

“You hear you’re going to British Columbia and you’re like, ‘They play baseball up there?’ It’s just not the first thing that comes to mind,” Gretler said with a grin. “Us dumb Americans think of the hockey and the other sports so I didn’t really know what to expect – if they were big baseball fans. I knew, growing up, when the Blue Jays would come to play the Mariners, there was always a big presence of Canadian fans that would come down for those games but I really didn’t know what to expect from a college baseball standpoint. But it was unbelievable.

“I think the first game that I showed up was a sellout and you’re like, ‘Wow, this is not really what I was expecting for college baseball in Victoria.’”

HarbourCats fans immediately loved Gretler for his honest, hardworking approach to the game. That – combined with his athleticism, skill and professional demeanour on and off the field – will undoubtedly leave him as one of the favourite HCats of all time.

“He was probably the nicest kid we’ve ever had play for us – just really personable, a really engaging young man,” said Jim Swanson, general manager of the HarbourCats. “He played almost all third base for us and he was outstanding. Glovework doesn’t go into slumps, right?

“At the plate, he struggled, and struggled in the fact that he was really a guy getting his first real solid look at college pitching. Our league is a pretty good league – guys are going from here to pro baseball. But he worked hard, he was a battler that way.”

The next summer, 2016, Gretler put it all together with Okotoks. As the team’s most valuable player, his defensive game was as spotless as ever. And, with a bat in his hands, he was a beast (34 games played, .331 average, 45 hits, 11 doubles, four home runs, 36 RBIs). He also picked up 18 walks and swiped two bases.

While Gretler is giving up the hot corner to focus on his career in the biopharmaceutical industry and to his upcoming wedding in October, he is thankful for his time in Victoria, Okotoks and the pros and hopes to give back to the game someday, perhaps at the coaching level.

For Gretler, the stops in Victoria and Okotoks were all part of the journey and he’s thankful for those experiences and memories. With professional baseball now behind him, he has turned his attention to building a career. He now works in the biopharmaceutical industry as a sales representative for AbbVie. On a more personal level, he got engaged to high school sweetheart Emily last July, with the wedding planned for October in Seattle.

“We’ve been dating since my senior year of high school,” Gretler said. “I was getting a lot of pressure – everyone that I knew was like, ‘When’re you gonna ask? When’re you gonna ask?’ So we’re excited. We’re hoping the pandemic is behind us. It’s going to be a big baseball reunion, that’s for sure.”

Gretler certainly isn’t done with the game that has given him so much. He plans to get into coaching, and he’ll always be a fan.

In the near future, hopefully this summer, he’ll head down to the Seattle waterfront and jump on the Victoria Clipper ferry for a ride north and a HarbourCats game.

If there’s ever a Michael Gretler bobblehead night at Royal Athletic Park, he’ll be there for sure.

“It would be the first time ever I’d have my own bobblehead,” he said with a chuckle. “I’d definitely have to make my way up there for that.”

Jason Peters is a freelance writer and editor based in Prince George, British Columbia. Visit his website at www.frontpagepublications.net.

Summer Collegiate

Victoria HarbourCats – HarbourCats Beat AppleSox on Harvey’s Birthday

Published

7 hours ago

July 18, 2026

Dugout Wire Service

Victoria, B.C. – The HarbourCats took on the division-leading Wenatchee AppleSox for the first time this season, walking away with a 9-7 win to open up the series.

If one thing was evident in the early stages of tonight’s ballgame, it’s that Jeremiah Arnett (Rice) had his best stuff. Fresh off of an All-Star Game appearance, Arnett racked up six strikeouts in his first two innings! The AppleSox would finally solve the Cats starter in the third inning, however, smashing a solo homer to take the lead. Wenatchee followed up with a double and a single before the end of the inning to extend their new lead to 2-0.

BOX SCORE

Victoria retaliated in a big way in the home half of the third. It all started with Dryden Fuoco (Hill College) reaching first base on a dropped third strike. After that, two singles loaded the bases with nobody out for the red-hot Bryan Bradshaw (UCSD), who pummelled a double down the left field line to bring in two runs and tie the game. Jacob Silva (UTSA) got his piece of the pie soon after, scorching a single through the infield and snatching a two-run lead.

It wasn’t long before the HarbourCats crossed the plate again. With the bases loaded and nobody out in the bottom of the fourth, a pitch in the dirt got away from the Wenatchee catcher and ended up allowing two runs to come home when the throw to the plate went awry. A Kwakrifice play from Riley Kwak (Bossier Parish) provided a cherry on top, and Victoria left behind the fourth inning with a comfortable 7-2 lead.

Designated hitter Logan Shepherd (Mercer) singled to leadoff the bottom of the fifth, and the AppleSox did the rest of the work for him. Three wild pitches in the inning gave Shepherd room to advance to second, third, and finally home to push that lead even further.

Arnett took his leave after five innings in which he gave up two runs on six hits, striking out an impressive nine batters along the ride. In his place appeared Spencer Kratt of San Jose State. Kratt let a couple of runners on but made up for it when a strike ’em out, throw ’em out double play brought a swift end to the inning.

Kratt vacated the mound after allowing two runs on a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly in the seventh inning, and Taylor Franklin (George Fox) was tagged in as his replacement. Franklin buckled down and fulfilled his duty, punching out a batter to finish off the inning. The Cats returned fire in the home half of the eighth inning on a Michael Rodda (Palomar) single to set up a bigger buffer for the top of the ninth, Wenatchee’s last shot.

Victoria found themselves in some trouble in the ninth, with Flynn Warren (Hawaii Pacific) letting up three runs. His replacement, Anson Stuckly (Texas A&M Corpus Christi), was able to clutch up and put the finishing touches on a 9-7 victory over the AppleSox.

WCL STANDINGS

With the upper hand in the series, the Cats have a series win in their sights when they take in Wenatchee again on Saturday night at 6:35 pm.

Single game tickets for all HarbourCats games are now on sale at http://harbourcats.com/tickets. Season tickets, 12-pack and 32-pack game vouchers may also be bought online or by stopping by the HarbourCats office at 101-1814 Vancouver Street.

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Summer Collegiate

Victoria HarbourCats – South Division All-Stars Hold On for All-Star Game Win

Published

2 days ago

July 16, 2026

Dugout Wire Service

Victoria, B.C. – In the biggest event of the 2026 season, Team North and Team South faced off in an epic duel of the WCL’s brightest stars. After taking an early lead in the first two innings, the South Division clung on for the win in a heart-pounding clash of talent.

Team South got it started early in this showdown of All-Stars! A leadoff base hit and a well-executed hit-and-run set up a RISP opportunity for Ridgefield Raptors slugger Zach Wadas, who found the outfield grass to drive in Payton Knowles (Walla Walla) for the first run of the ballgame. Nevertheless, North Division starter and HarbourCats ace Erik Rico picked up two strikeouts to get out of the inning. David Krahn (Victoria) sliced a ball to right field for a single in his first trip to the plate, but was cut down as part of a double play to end a quick bottom half of the first.

BOX SCORE

The other half of Victoria’s lethal starter duo took the mound for the second frame. Jeremiah Arnett got into a bit of trouble in his allotted inning, allowing another run for the South Division on an infield error. Ethan Porter added on to the lead when he dug in with a man on base and blasted a two-run shot out to the scoreboard.

Nathaniel Kurano (Yakima Valley) came in to pitch for Team South in the bottom of the second and continued to shut down the northern offence, striking out two batters in a quick one-two-three outing. Seth Sumner (Kelowna) took the field for the North Division for the top half of inning number three, holding Team South to their first scoreless inning on offence with an efficient frame of work.

Erik Rico got a chance to show off as an All-Star starter for Team North. (Photo by JPM Photography)

Team North finally strung a few hits together in the home half of the third inning. Kamloops Northpaws outfielder Kade Crawford belted a line drive to right field that sent Carter Enoch (Port Angeles) wheeling around third base to score the home team’s first run of the ballgame. David Krahn was next, and the Cats star pummelled a hard ground ball for an infield hit to bring home another run and make it 4-2 in favour of Team South. Jordan Haver (Ridgefield) was summoned to finish off the inning and did so with haste, striking out Nanaimo’s Ethan Reynolds.

From the bullpen came Joe Thornton (Wenatchee) to oversee the first half of the fourth, cruising through a three-up three-down performance with two strikeouts to keep Team South off the bases. The bottom of inning number four was Morgan Codron’s domain. The Corvallis right-hander struggled a little with command but ultimately got his way out of a scoreless inning after giving up a leadoff walk.

Team South threatened with a man in scoring position in the top of the fifth, but the speedy runner was gunned down trying to steal third by a laser beam from Port Angeles catcher Carter Enoch. The scoreless stretch continued for the back half of the fifth inning as well, with Parker Heintz (Ridgefield) deftly shutting down Team North.

David Krahn stood out in tonight’s game, producing hard contact and making the hot corner look easy to make Victoria proud. (Photo by JPM Photography)

It was Carter Fink’s time to shine come top six. The Edmonton hurler glided through a frame in which he had little trouble, continuing the pitching dominance throughout the middle innings. The South squad sent out Perry Stow (Walla Walla) in response for the bottom of the sixth, who kept the scoreless streak going and maintained a two-run lead. David Sheppard was the next name drawn from the hat to continue this parade of pitchers. Representing the Edmonton Riverhawks, Sheppard secured three quick groundouts and sent the South lineup down quietly.

It was Jake Lyall (Bellingham) who finally broke the stalemate in the bottom of the seventh. Kamloops Northpaws outfielder Evan Dugdale hit a single, stole second, and moved to third on a groundout just in time for Lyall to drive him in on a sacrifice fly. Two innings left to play, and we have ourselves a one-run ballgame with South ahead 4-3.

Clint Beck (Wenatchee) was the man on the mound for the top of the eighth, benefitting from some excellent outfield play by Jaden Jackson. The Bellingham centre fielder was pulled way to his left, and then had to range way to his right on consecutive high flyouts.

The tables turned in the bottom of inning eight. Michael Klein of the Springfield Drifters loaded the bases after his centre fielder lost a sky-high ball in the lights. With the pond full of ducks, Edmonton slugger Easton Andrews patiently drew a six-pitch walk to tie the game in a truly masterful at bat. Jake Lyall’s liner was spoiled by a great play at second base, but the North got that tying run they needed with one inning to go.

The South All-Stars put together a team effort for the win. (Photo by JPM Photography)

A crucial top of the ninth rolled around, and Team South was determined to put the North on their back foot. Walla Walla’s Sam Kane drew a leadoff walk and Yakima Valley’s Daichi Furuhata came up with a two-out single before Troy Sanders (Bend) got his hero moment. Sanders made contact with a Jaxon McDonald (Nanaimo) fastball and dropped a barely-fair RBI double into right field, sending Kane home and making it 5-4 in favour of Team South!

With a narrow one-run lead to work with, Portland Pickles pitcher Rafael Espinoza took over the mound looking to close things out. Disaster struck the South’s middle infield when David Krahn lifted a towering pop up. The shortstop and second baseman failed to reach an accord, letting the dirt catch the baseball instead and allowing Krahn to reach second base! In the end, however, nothing came of that bizarre opportunity. Team South held onto their lead and closed out a nail-biter of a 5-4 win in the Showpass 2026 West Coast League All-Star Game presented by Canadian Club.

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Summer Collegiate

Victoria HarbourCats – Team HarbourCats Reign Victorious in 2026 WCL Home Run Derby

Published

3 days ago

July 15, 2026

Dugout Wire Service

Victoria, B.C. – In an electrifying back-and-forth competition, Team HarbourCats, a trio of Logan Shepherd, Michael Rodda, and the great Kevin Pillar, claimed a resounding victory in tonight’s home run derby.

Game one of the round robin got things started with a bang! The first matchup featured Team North taking on Team HarbourCats, and the action began right off the bat with Kevin Pillar making a spectacular catch to rob a home run. Superman doing Superman things.

Team North took an early lead, with Sam Kane (Walla Walla), Zach Wadas (Ridgefield), and Martin Serrano (Marion) clubbing the ball with passion. The home team stormed back in their second turn at the plate, however! Michael Rodda kicked things off and, after an absolute surge of homers, tagged in Logan Shepherd with 40 seconds remaining to finish the round. Shepherd and Rodda combined for a huge round to storm back and take a 35-33 lead.

Serrano began the top of the third, switching out halfway for Wadas. The two sluggers put together a strong inning and pushed Team South’s score to 52 points, no doubt a tough challenge for Team HarbourCats to overcome. Shepherd and Rodda gave it their all, but in the end came up just short with a 56-49 loss in game one.

Superman sends one deep to left. (Photo by JPM Photography)

Team HarbourCats took the field once again in game two, this time to face a North Division trio of Noah Cassie (Bellingham), Kade Crawford (Kamloops), and Ethan Reynolds (Nanaimo) – a band of sluggers about as fearsome as can be found in the WCL. The score was tied at 15 each after a first round that featured a tag-team effort from Kevin Pillar and Logan Shepherd.

Crawford and Reynolds squared off against a duo of Michael Rodda and Pillar in the second inning, resulting in the score remaining close at 29-26 in favour of the Cats. Team North’s final push in the top of the third gave them a 45-33 lead, meaning team HarbourCats needed just 13 points to walk it off. Logan Shepherd took that responsibility head on. The Mercer University slugger stepped up and hammered a steady stream of homers, walking off game two and giving the Cats a 1-1 record in the round robin.

The third and final round robin game was decided by a significantly wider margin. The powerhouse trio that is Team South combined raw power with quick defence, jumping out to a 48-38 lead after the first two innings.

Pillar’s mix of powerful offence and sturdy defence was a serious asset for Team HarbourCats. (Photo by JPM Photography)

Inning number three is where this third game really opened up, with Zach Wadas and Sam Kane combining for 24 points. If Team North wanted to salvage this game, they would need to make up a lot of ground. 31 points of ground to be exact.

Noah Cassie stepped in and made it respectable, but Team North suffered their second defeat of the round robin with a final score of 79-56, leaving Team South and Team HarbourCats to face off in the finals.

Before the finals began, a special surprise took the field! Nanaimo NightOwls head coach Cody Andreychuk duked it out in a head-to head derby with Cats assistant skipper Carson Myers. Andreychuk was lucky enough to catch the fearsome Coach Myers on a bad day, taking the Coaches’ Challenge 9-0.

The finals were next up, and it proved to be a legendary matchup indeed. Kevin Pillar kicked it off for Team HarbourCats and had clearly saved his best for the big moment. An early hot streak activation and a hefty handful of homers gave the Cats a solid lead out of the gate.

From then on, Team HarbourCats and Team South battled back in forth in a titanic tug-of-war. Walla Walla’s Sam Kane did his worst with a typhoon of long balls in the South Division’s turn at the dish, followed by a monstrous counterattack from second-year Cat Logan Shepherd to retake the lead.

Cats slugger Logan Shepherd delivered the winning blow. (Photo by JPM Photography)

Team South tried valiantly to make up the ground they needed, but in the end the clock ran out and victory for the home team was sealed. Logan Shepherd, Michael Rodda, and Kevin Pillar would be crowned Home Run Derby champions.

Don’t miss the 2026 West Coast League All-Star Game tomorrow night at Wilson’s Group Stadium at Royal Athletic park! Get your tickets at http://harbourcats.com/tickets to secure your seats!

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