The rain held off Friday night, allowing the White Rock Tritons to finally take the field for two BC Premier Baseball League games, but the results – a pair of losses – kept the team treading water in the middle of the PBL pack.
The under-18 baseball squad lost both ends of an evening doubleheader at North Vancouver’s Parkgate Park, losing 6-2 and 8-7. The losses left the Semiahmoo Peninsula team with a 1-3 win-loss record, which puts them 10th in the 12-team league. However, the team remains just two games behind the first-place Victoria Mariners, who’ve managed to play just twice so far this season, due to weather issues.
In fact, due to the plethora of rain-outs through the first few weeks of the season, no team has played more than the Abbotsford Cardinals’ 10 games, and most have played between three and six, which means even the last-place Victoria Eagles, who are still in search of their first win, are not too far behind the league leaders.
In the first game Friday, White Rock jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on the home team, when Jackson Hogg – who had reached base due to an error by the Twins’ shortstop – scored on a Keith Manby single.
White Rock extended the lead in the top of the third inning, again with Manby at the dish. Cole Walter reached base on an error, then stole both second and third base, and scored when Manby, who hit the ball to the shortstop, was put out at first base for the second out of the inning.
North Shore responded in the bottom half of the inning with one run of their own, and took a commanding lead in the bottom of the fourth, scoring four times. Leading 5-2, the hosts also tacked on an insurance run in the sixth.
Allan Hogg started the game on the mound for White Rock, pitching three innings while striking out three and allowing just one unearned run. Reliever Jacob Hart – who took over in the fourth inning – was tagged with the loss.
The second game of the double-dip featured big innings from both teams. White Rock scored twice in the first inning and once more in the third, but the 3-0 lead was erased a half inning later when the Twins scored four of theiro own. In the fifth frame, leading 4-3, North Shore extended the lead significantly with another four-run inning.
In the top of the sixth, White Rock’s comeback attempt fell just short, scoring four times to pull within one, but that was as close as they’d get. Left-fielder and cleanup hitter Adam Van den Brink led the Tritons’ offensive charge with three runs-batted-in, while Hogg went 3-for-3 with a double, two stolen bases and two runs scored. The team’s other Hogg – Allan’s younger brother, Jackson – also had two RBI and a double.
Tanner Carmont was the pitcher of record for White Rock, striking out one in two-and-one-thirds of an inning.
Prior to Friday’s road trip to the North Shore, White Rock had played just two league games; four tilts against the Okanagan Athletics were rained out earlier this month. Two weekends ago, they had a scheduled break in the PBL schedule so they could journey up the Coquihalla Highway for the Best in the West Tournament, held in Kamloops.
In Kamloops, the team went 1-2 in round-robin play, losing the final game 3-1 to the North Shore – a game that seeded the Tritons sixth, which meant they had to play a do-or-die tilt against the Edmonton Prospects, with the winner qualifying for a berth in next year’s tournament.
White Rock won the play-in tilt 8-5.
“Basically, we went there hoping we could qualify for next year… we came in with a goal and we accomplished it,” said Tritons head coach Kyle Dhanani.
White Rock will now settle back into a very busy league schedule, which includes the team’s longest homestand of the season. Beginning Thursday against the Langley Blaze, the Tritons will play nine straight games at South Surrey Athletic Park. This Saturday, they host the Mid-Island Pirates for a pair of games, and on Sunday, play two against the visiting Parksville Royals.
