The defending champs are finding the going tough in the early stages of the B.C. Premier Baseball League season.
The Okanagan Athletics were swept by the hometown North Shore Twins over the weekend in a four-game series to slip to 5-11 on the season and into 10th place in the 13-team PBL.
In the series opener Saturday, the Twins outlasted the A’s in a slugfest 12-10. Catcher Morgan Lofstrom led the A’s in the loss with three RBIs, Josh Croft had three hits and two RBIs, and Surya Viswanathan had three hits and scored three times.
In the second game, North Shore’s Clark Grisbrook tossed a no-hitter for five innings as the Twins prevailed 16-0.
On Sunday, the Athletics took the Twins to nine innings before losing 8-7. Dawson Yates had two hits and three RBIs, while James Ward added two hits and two runs batted in for Okanagan.
In the series finale, the A’s mustered just three hits in a 2-0 loss.
The Athletics next BCPBL action is May 18 and 19 when they visit the Langley Blaze for four games.
Junior A’s…
The junior A’s headed to Coquitlam and forged out a split of four games with the hometown Redlegs.
On Saturday, the Redlegs took the series opener with a 6-0 win in Game 1 as the A’s could manage just one hit off two Coquitlam pitchers.
Okanagan rebounded in the second game with an 8-7 victory as Alex Russell drove in two runs. Clay Stephens drove in Markus Glowacki with the winning run in the seventh inning. Brad Whitehead picked up the win with two scoreless innings of relief.
On Sunday, the first game saw the Redlegs win 8-4. Sam Larsen scored twice and stole his league-leading 17th base of the season for the A’s.
In the series finale, Parker Friesen pitched six scoreless innings and Kyle Weninger drove in two runs in a 7-1 Okanagan win.
The junior A’s (9-7) will take a break from BCJPBL action until May 25 and 26 when they battle the Langley Blaze for four games at Edith Gay Park.
