The Vernon Diamondbacks went 1-1 in a North Vancouver senior men’s baseball tournament last weekend, missing the playoffs by a mere two runs in tie-breaker rules.
Jason Nazar was dominant on the mound as the D-backs doubled the North Shore A’s 6-3 in their opener. He went all seven innings, giving up three runs on six hits, while walking three and striking out nine to help his club earn its first win of the season.
Jason Webster led Vernon’s bats with a double and two RBI, Gary Ortman smacked an RBI and scored a run and Nazar had a ribbie.
Adam Nairne recorded a double, and later scored thanks to some aggressive base running on a routine ground ball that took a funny hop and ended up in right field. Veteran Aaron Himelson also had a pair of hits, a walk and two runs scored.
In their second game, the Diamondbacks hung starter Mike Patitucci out to dry in an 11-3 loss to the Vancouver Brewers.
Patitucci allowed eight unearned runs in the first inning thanks to six errors. Jared Sochan pitched three solid innings of relief, giving up three runs (one earned), while fanning four.
The Vernon bats only mustered four hits, but added four stolen bases, one each from Nairne, Sochan, Tyler Gertzen and CJ Galozo.
The Diamondbacks now travel to Trail where they continue the best-of-five series with the Orioles for a berth to westerns. The Diamondbacks are down 2-0 in the series.
