Their bats have yet to warm up this season, but the White Rock Tritons relied on pitching to win two of four game against the Okanagan Athletics last weekend.
The Tritons, who sport a 4-3 record through the first two weeks of the B.C. Premier Baseball League season, and A’s played two games on both Saturday and Sunday at South Surrey Athletic Park, with all but one decided by two runs or less.
“The pitchers were just unbelievable this weekend – they won all the battles,” said White Rock head coach Russ Smithson.
Okanagan, 4-2 on the season, won Saturday’s opener 3-1, but White Rock took the night cap by a 1-0 score. On Sunday, the Tritons’ bats led the home team to a 5-1 win. In the second game, however, the two clubs reverted to their low-scoring ways, with the A’s winning 2-0.
“It was OK to get (the split), but I was pretty disappointed, to be honest,” Smithson said. “When we get performances like that from our pitchers, but aren’t able to score two runs, it’s not that great.”
In the first game, the Tritons managed just one hit off Okanagan starting pitcher Jake Maters, and scored when Nathan Ackerman – who doubled to start the inning – was moved around the bases and eventually scored on a pair of infield putouts.
White Rock pitcher Josh Larsen was tagged with the loss despite impressive numbers – he pitched all seven innings, striking out three while allowing just three hits and a pair of walks.
The Seaquam Secondary senior – who is committed to play at El Paso Community College next season – is 1-1 on the season with a stellar 1.08 earned-run average.
The second tilt of the day was a pitchers’ duel between Tritons’ Joel Lamont and Athletics’ Jeff May. Lamont did not allow a single run – earned or otherwise – through seven innings of work, while striking out nine, walking just one and allowing only two hits, both of them singles.
“Lamont has been unbelievable for us so far this season,” Smithson said.
And though he was credited with the loss, May was nearly as good on the Okanagan mound. He went the distance for the visiting squad, striking out four while allowing two hits and one earned run.
White Rock left-fielder Cody Didyk drove in the game’s only run, when his single scored teammate Jackson Temple from third base. Prior to the hit, Temple walked and stolen a base to put himself in scoring position.
Though the first game Sunday – White Rock’s 5-1 victory – was the only one of the weekend set to see more than four total runs cross the plate, the number was due as much to defensive miscues as offensive prowess; the two teams combined for five errors – two for Okanagan, three for White Rock.
All the game’s runs were scored early, as the Tritons scored twice in the bottom of the first inning, and the A’s replied in the top of the second with one of their own. In the bottom of the second, however, White Rock exploded for three runs, lead by a double from Temple and single by Lamont.
Tritons’ pitcher Shaylen Buis – who split last season between the Junior Tritons and the U18 team – started the game, striking out three and allowing just one run over five innings. He was relieved for the final two frames by Tanner Sandstrom, who scattered three hits but allowed no men on base.
In the final game Sunday, pitchers again stole the show, namely Athletics’ Nolan Handley, who pitched the complete-game shutout, and held the Triton hitters to just a pair of hits while fanning six.
Sean McGuire, who took to the hill for White Rock, struck out a pair and allowed just two runs on four hits in five innings. Adam Shumka took the ball for the final two innings, striking out two while giving up just one base hit.
Second baseman Tony Tabor and designated hitter Talon Van Horn were the only Tritons to get a hit off Handley, while Ackerman also worked a walk off the hot Okanagan hurler.
Tabor also stole two bases in the contest, and sits third in the PBL with five on the season, just one behind teammate Josh Sigurdson, with six and three back of speedy Langley Blaze outfielder Mike Krische, who has eight already through six games.
