A pair of shutout victories helped the Langley Blaze win three of four games over the weekend.
The U18 baseball team was up against two of the top teams in the B.C. Premier Baseball League and when the dust had settled, Langley split with the first-place North Shore Twins (17-5) while sweeping the North Delta Blue Jays, knocking them from second to fourth place (12-6) in the standings.
The Blaze (19-8) are tied for second place, a half-game behind the Twins.
Langley lost 12-2 in the opener on Saturday at McLeod Park before bouncing back with a 7-0 win in game two.
Jake Polancic earned the win as he and junior call-up Michael Stovman combined on a six-hit shutout.
Stovman struck out three in 3.1 innings with Polancic getting the final two outs of the fourth inning and then the final three innings. He struck out five.
Offensively, Hayden Jaco led the way with a double, three hits and a pair of RBIs. Connor Chorpita also had a two-run double.
In the game one loss, the Twins had three four-run innings as they pounded out 14 hits against five Langley pitchers. Wesley Moore, a junior call-up took the loss.
Travis Leclair and Jesse Unger had the RBIs.
Sunday’s doubleheader was also at McLeod Park with Langley winning 10-0 and 8-4 over the Blue Jays.
The opener saw Cooper Misic pitch a two-hit shutout with six strikeouts as he improved to 6-1 on the season.
Aiden Mordecai had a two-run double while Jaco also drove in another two runs.
Jaco leads Langley in hits (23) and RBIs (18) and is second in batting average (.348).
The Blaze were three outs away from their third consecutive shutout before the Blue Jays scored four runs in the 8-4 Langley victory.
Kyle Ross went six shutout innings, allowing just one hit but six walks with seven strikeouts before North Delta tagged Parker Logan for three runs and Brendan Coulter for one.
Leclair had two RBIs while Unger, Stovman, Chorpita, Yi-An Pan and Yi-Fan Pan drove in one run apiece.
Langley will look to build on its three-game winning streak when they host the Okanagan Athletics (17-11) in a four-game set this weekend at McLeod Park.
