Former Kelowna Falcons pitcher Phil Maton made his big league debut today for the San Diego Padres at Petco Park vs. the Kansas City Royals. Maton tossed a scoreless inning in the Padres 8-3 defeat.

Maton, out of Louisiana Tech, starred for Kelowna in the summer of 2012 where he went 2-1 with a save over 11 appearances and 39.1 innings pitched while posting a 2.74 ERA and striking out 42.

The hard throwing right-hander, rated the #18 prospect in the San Diego system by Baseball America, was called up after nine consecutive scoreless appearances at AAA El Paso.

ABOUT THE WEST COAST LEAGUE

The West Coast League is the premier summer collegiate baseball league west of the Mississippi. The 13-year-old, 11-team, professionally operated wood-bat league located in the beautiful Pacific Northwest features pro prospects from major conferences across the nation and an unparalleled history out west of great fan and player experiences in addition to the best summer weather in North America. In 2016, 88 players with WCL experience were selected in the MLB June draft, and more than 230 WCL alums appeared in affiliated professional baseball including 28 in the major leagues, such as 2015 home-run leader Chris Davis (Baltimore), 2015 NL Rookie of the Year runner-up Matt Duffy (Tampa Bay) and rising star pitchers Matt Andriese (Tampa Bay), Matt Boyd (Detroit) and James Paxton (Seattle). Overall member attendance was 379,611 this past season.