Time is running out on the North Delta Blue Jays.
The B.C. Premier Baseball League team won two of four games at home last weekend, failing to make up any ground in a battle to qualify for the elite 18-and-under league’s eight-team playoff.
After splitting double headers with the Victoria Eagles and Nanaimo Pirates, the Jays remain three games behind the eighth-place Vancouver Cannons, with just five games remaining on their schedule. North Delta has an 18-25 won-lost) record, while Vancouver is at 20-21.
Four Victoria batters managed three hits each, leading a 20-hit attack in the first game of Saturday’s double header at Mackie Park, a 19-6 victory by the visitors. The Eagles scored four times in the top of the third inning to break a scoreless tie, added four more in the fourth, and five in the fifth to build a 13-5 lead.
Riley Grewal and Brock Morgan had two hits each for the Jays, with Morgan driving in two runs and scoring one.
All nine players in the North Delta lineup scored at least once in the second game, lifting the Jays to a 15-5 win. Jordy Cunningham and Brad Antchak had three hits each, with Mitch Boehm and Ryo Takenaka each adding two. Bryan O’Hara, Antchak, Morgan, Evan Rogers and Cunningham each collected a pair of RBIs.
Dylan MacAhonic was the winning pitcher. The Cloverdale resident allowed five earned runs on 11 hits and four walks.
The scores were closer in Sunday’s two games, with the Pirates winning the first game 6-2 in eight innings and the Jays taking the second 2-1.
Nanaimo scored four runs off four hits in the extra inning, before retiring the Jays in order in the bottom of the eighth.
North Delta’s two runs came in the third inning, as O’Hara singled to score Cunningham then Clint Taylor came home on a double steal to leave the teams tied 2-2 after three innings.
In the second game, the Blue Jays took advantage of strong pitching. Brett Sakaki of Surrey allowed one unearned run on three hits and three walks over the first five innings of the game. Antchak got the win, throwing two no-hit innings in relief.
Nanaimo took an early lead when a Jays error allowed a run to score. Antchak tied the game in the bottom half of the opening inning, hitting a double to get on base then scoring on Morgan’s single.
Taylor scored the winning run in the sixth, leading off with a base hit then crossing the plate after a single from Trent Fletcher.
The Jays are in Kelowna next weekend for a four-game series with the 19-25 Okanagan Athletics.
