The Save-On-Foods Parksville Royals salvaged a win out of their four weekend games.
On Saturday, the Royals took on the Victoria Eagles on a clear and windy afternoon in Campbell River and ended up losing both games 9-3 and 10-2. Then on Sunday, they faced the White Rock Tritons and split their doubleheader, winning 5-4 but lost the second game 4-5. Both games went into extra innings.
In Game 1 on Saturday, veteran Shae Verral wasn’t able to figure the Eagles hitters early as they put up four runs in the first inning. Verral hung tough but solid Eagles hitting combined with spotty defence around him led to his exit after 3 2/3 innings.
Nathan Lagos came on in relief and fared well, allowing one earned run in 3 1/3 innings of action. Lagos and centerfielder Connor Hall each contributed a double and an RBI while Anson McGorman had a single and a triple and two runs scored.
The second game was more of the same with the Royals struggling on pitching and defence resulting in another sizable early lead for the visitors. Starter Nolan Macdonald couldn’t build on his impressive performance the previous weekend and gave up seven runs over three innings. Travis Frank came on in relief and held Victoria to two earned runs over three innings before Tyler Newby came on to pitch a scoreless 7th inning. Hall continued his hot day at the plate with a single, a double, and a run scored.
On Sunday, the Royals had some success after splitting the doubleheader against the White Rock Tritons at Springwood 5-4 and 4-5.
Jacob Volkers was strong on the hill allowing three runs, only one earned, to go with 11 strikeouts. The Royals trailed 3-1 in the bottom of the seventh and Tim Holyk started the rally with a leadoff double. Trevor Nicoll was next up and promptly crushed a double of his own to score Holyk and cut the deficit to just a run. After Macdonald bunted Nicoll to third, Brodie Comerford came up with an RBI groundout to the right side to score Nicoll and send the game into extras.
In the 11th, White Rock took the lead again. The Royals came right back and with twio outs and a runner on first, Connor Hall drilled a triple to deep right field scoring Travis Frank to tie it up but not for long.
Next up was Lagos, hitting a whopping .469 on the season.
He made no mistake, lining the first pitch he saw into right field to score Hall and win the game for the boys in purple. Comerford got the win with five strong innings of relief.
Game 2 saw yet another close game with multiple lead changes and a decision in extra innings. Sophomore Anson McGorman was on the bump and he had his good stuff, striking out 10 Triton batters over five innings of work. That gives him 21 strikeouts in just 13 innings this young season. The Royals again found themselves down a run heading into the bottom of the seventh. Parksville loaded the bases with one away and Holyk came up with the clutch sacrifice fly to left field to score Connor Hall from third. On to extra innings and the eigthh saw White Rock again grab the lead and this time they held on. At the plate, Brodie Comerford and Kieran Bowles led the way as both went 3-for-4.
— NEWS Staff/Submitted
