Canadian pitcher becomes 1st woman in West Coast League

A collegiate summer league will be making some baseball history when players take the field this year.

Claire Eccles, a 19-year-old left-handed knuckleballer who pitches for the Canadian women's baseball team, has signed with the Victoria HarbourCats of the West Coast League, an 11-team league in the northwest United States and Canada that regularly attracts some of the top college-level talent from across the continent.

Eccles, who also plays softball at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, will become the first woman to ever play in the league since its founding in 2005. She's represented her country at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto, along with a pair of Women's Baseball World Cups in 2014 and '16.

"One-hundred percent Claire is good enough to play on our team," HarbourCats general manager Brad Norris-Jones told The Canadian Press on Tuesday. "Is it going to be a challenge for Claire? Absolutely.

"We're just going to get everyone involved and show that in 2017, this isn't different. This isn't weird. It's normal."

The HarbourCats open their 2017 season on June 1.

Notable major-league alumni of the West Coast League include Baltimore Orioles slugger Chris Davis, Seattle Mariners left-hander James Paxton, and New York Yankees outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury.