Baseball is kind of a law-of-averages game, said VIBI manager Jordan Blundell.
“We’ve had opportunities to this point and most of the time we haven’t been successful,” he said. “We’re looking forward to the law of averages kind of equalling out.”
The Vancouver Island Baseball Institute Mariners won one out of four games this past weekend against the University of Calgary Dinos at Serauxmen Stadium.
The Dinos swept Saturday’s action 4-2 and 2-1. The M’s won Sunday’s early game 1-0, but finished on the wrong end of a 10-0 blowout in the late game.
There were some strong pitching performances on the weekend but not much run support.
“Our guys are playing good defensively for those pitchers, allowing them to put up zeros,” Blundell said. “It’s kind of fallen on our offence’s shoulders right now to pick it up a little bit.”
He said the team will keep working on the fundamentals, trying to hit the ball hard and avoid the pop flies that have plagued them so far this spring.
“We have to try and get on top of the baseball a little bit more and put a little more pressure on the defence,” Blundell said.
In the first game of the weekend, Liam Goodall had two doubles and Matt Davis suffered the loss, allowing two hits over six innings.
In the next game, Cody Phipps had three hits and Cody Andreychuk had a single, a triple and an RBI. Connor Russell struck out 11 Dinos over 8 1/3 innings.
VIBI’s victory came in extra innings, when Aaron Witzke hit a game-winning RBI single in the ninth. Luke Hawkins got the win on the mound after starter Cody Chartrand struck out 10 batters over seven shutout innings.
In the finale, Jorhn Kaluzniak took the loss.
A positive of the weekend, said Blundell, was the way his players worked to keep the field playable during uncooperative weather.
“Our guys put a couple hours in each day before we even got to the baseball stuff,” he said. “Their commitment and work ethic to make the weekend happen is something that’s pretty special.”
GAME ON … VIBI plays Prairie Baseball Academy and Thompson Rivers University on Saturday (April 7) and Sunday in Kamloops.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com
