Morning Star Staff
The Vernon Canadians hope to stop the skid tonight in B.C. Midget AAA Baseball League play against the Kelowna Cubs (6 p.m., Marshall).
The C’s dropped four games at Marshall Field last weekend by a combined eight runs, losing 3-2 and 5-2 Saturday to the Aldergrove Indians, and falling 5-2 and 7-6 Sunday to the Tri-Cities Royals.
“It’s becoming very frustrating to lose so many close games,” said Vernon coach Ken Liefke, whose squad has dropped 10 of its last 11 contests.
“Saturday, our bats were cold and we wasted two good pitching performances. On Sunday, we swung the bats well, our defence was good, we just need a break.”
Dylan Emmons pitched his fourth complete game of the season to kick off the weekend Saturday against Aldergrove. Emmons allowed five hits and three earned runs while striking out 12.
Landon Currie was 2-for-3 at the plate.
In the nightcap, Brayden Damini went the distance, allowing five earned runs on eight hits and struck out seven. Chris Riva had two singles.
In Sunday’s opener against the Royals, Tyler Wellman struck out a pair, gave up seven hits and four earned runs over six innings of work. He was supported offensively by Garner Chudyk, who was 1-for-2 with a walk and RBI. Ethan Huizinga chipped in an RBI-double.
In game two, the pitching trio of Nathan Nesbitt, Cory Anderson (five Ks) and Koichiro Yano combined for nine strikeouts.
Currie had two singles and three stolen bases, for the Canadians, who gave props to sponsor of the week Anchor Inn Pub and Restaurant.
Nesbitt had a pair of singles and Thomas was 1-3 with two stolen bases.
Vernon Bantam AA Canadians went 0-3 at the U13 Jevon Clarke Tournament in Coquitlam.
The C’s opened with a 9-1 loss to the Coquitlam Moody Reds. Eric Foufoulas and Ryan Vandesande shared pitching duties while catcher Shaun Huizinga was solid behind the plate.
Foufoulas contributed two double plays at shortstop while Vandesande had a double to score Jared Nickoli with the team’s only run.
The Canadians were blanked 5-0 by the Abbotsford Angels.
Starting pitcher Jack Jansen struck out eight Angels while Sapion Joe whiffed the final three Abbotsford batter. Joe and Jackson Soucy each had a hit and two stolen bases while Cole Hutchison had a hit and one swipe.
The C’s lost 14-1 to the Richmond Chuckers.
