With the regular season rapidly drawing to a close, the Parksville Royals are battling to finish well up in the BC Premier League Baseball standings to secure home advantage for the upcoming playoffs.
Last weekend, the Royals were at home and hosted White Rock Tritons and Whalley Chiefs and posted a 3-1 weekend
Against the Tritons, the Royals opened with a tough 2-0 loss in game one. It was a pitcher’s duel with Josh Laukkanen and the Tritons ace trading zeroes through five innings. In the top of the sixth, the Royals defence let them down as the Tritons scored two unearned runs to take the lead. The Royals had two innings to respond but couldn’t manage to string a few hits together. Laukkanen finished with a line of zero earned runs and five strikeouts over six innings. Brady Radcliffe pitched a scoreless seventh inning.
The boys in purple came out firing in game two and put up three runs to end the first inning with a 3-1. In the third, the Tritons battered the Royals with four runs to take a 5-3 lead. The Royals got one run back in the bottom of the third and were not able to score again. In the bottom of the seventh, trailing 5-4, Connor Hall had a single to reach first base. Thomas Green bunted and connected. But the Tritons catcher’s throw to first base sailed over the first baseman that allowed Hall to score the tying run. With Green in third base, Brodie Comerford grounded a pitch that was snagged by the Tritons pitcher, who checked third base first before throwing to first. But his throw was wild sending Green home to give Royals a 6-5 win.
On Sunday under sunny skies at beautiful Inouye-Wallace field, the Royals hosted the Whalley Chiefs. In yet another well-pitched contest, the score was tied at 1 heading into the bottom of the sixth. Laukkanen led off the inning with a triple to deep left-center and scored the go-ahead run one batter later on Thomas Green’s sacrifice fly to right field. That was enough for Royals to seal 2-1 victory.
Starter Brodie Comerford was dominant allowing one unearned run over six innings, walking none and striking out seven batters. Comerford’s ERA now stands at 0.30 over 28 innings pitched this season.
Game two saw the Chiefs and Royals knotted at 2-2 after two innings. After Spencer Walton’s sac fly scored Kiran Carcary in the first inning, Carcary’s two-out single scored Brayden Baker and brought the game even. Starter Jacob Volkers closed the door the rest of the way and scattered four hits over seven innings pitched. With one out in the bottom of the seventh, Laukkanen reached on an error and found himself on third. Catcher Spencer Walton lashed a 1-1 pitch into right field to score Laukkanen and the Royals walked-off the Chiefs by a score of 3-2 for their second win of the day.
The Royals moved up to fifth place from sixth in the standings with 26 wins and 18 losses. They will be at home on July 21 against the North Delta Blue Jays at 12:15 p.m. and 2:45 p.m. at Springwood Park. They close out the season on the road in Langley against the Blaze on July 22.
Jr Royals reach BCs semis
The Save-On-Foods Parksville Junior Royals competed in the Baseball BC 18U AAA Tier 2 provincial championship in Coquitlam last weekend.
The Royals got off to a great start with an 8-4 win against Abbotsford Cardinals. They dropped game two to North Delta Blue Jays 4-1. After the round robin was completed the Royals advanced to the semi-finals but their run was halted by the Coquitlam Redlegs.
This week the Royals host UBC at Springwood Park for two games on Saturday. First pitch at 12:15 p.m., concession opens at 11:45 a.m.
Bantam Royals drop two
The Save-On-Foods Parksville Bantam Royals travelled to Victoria for a double header against the Victoria Eagles last Sunday.
In game one, Anson McGorman started the game and gave up three earned runs with five strikeouts in four innings of work. Will Roberts came in relief and threw one shutout inning.
Ethan Dean would come in to close and the Eagles would add two more. McGorman tried to help his cause going 2-2 at the plate with two singles.
To start the sixth, Courtenay’s Owen Crouse would take the Eagles pitcher deep over the centre field fence for his first dinger of the season. The Royals would give a late push but the rally would come up short and they would drop the opener 6-8 to the Eagles.
In the second game of the afternoon, Ellis Vugteveen would take to the hill. Vugteveen would go for 6 2/3 innings giving up three runs on three hits while striking out six Eagles. Will Roberts led the offence going 2-for-3 with a single and a double.
It was a tight game but in the bottom of the seventh the Eagle batter would hit a single to right field and score the runner on 3rd for the win. Final score 3-2 Eagles.
The Royals are at home next week at Bill Moore Park to take on Langley.
— NEWS Staff/Royals report
