All’s well that ends well.
At least that is the mantra the White Rock Tritons are subscribing to this week, and their weekend road trip to Vancouver Island did not get off to the greatest of starts, but was salvaged with a pair of wins Sunday.
White Rock, now 5-7 in the BC Premier Baseball League season, opened their four-game excursion with two one-run losses Saturday to the first-place Nanaimo Pirates, losing the first game 6-5 and the second 8-7.
But on Sunday, the visitors rebounded in Parksville, taking two from the Royals, 4-1 and 7-5.
On Saturday, the Tritons nearly pulled off the Game 1 win, losing in extra innings after Nanaimo’s Griffin Andreychuk scored on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth inning. Andreychuk reached base after being hit by a pitch and advanced to third after a single and a White Rock error before scoring.
White Rock got off to a good start in the game with two runs in the top of the first inning – Tony Tabor, on a wild pitch, and Jackson Temple both scored – but the Pirates responded with runs of their own in the bottom of the first and the fourth, and the teams each scored three in the fifth.
Temple had two RBI in the game, and Tanner Sandstrom stole two bases.
On the mound, Max Koltai was tagged with the loss in a relief effort. He pitched the final three innings of the game after replacing starter Joel Lamont, who lasted four-and-a-third.
Each team’s offence was in top gear in the second game of the doubleheader.
White Rock scored four in the third, another in the fourth and two in the seventh, but the Pirates edged the visitors, scoring at least one run in each inning except the first and the sixth, again winning in extra innings, when Alex Roger scored in the eighth inning on a Bryan Odgers single.
Catcher Brett Walker led the Tritons with two hits – one of which was a double – and two RBI while designated hitter Evan Douglas also went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored.
Relief pitcher Connor Kenwood was the pitcher of record for the losing squad, allowing two runs in two-and-two-thirds innings of work. Cody Didyk started the game, working into the fifth inning. He allowed nine hits and struck out three.
A day later in Parksville, White Rock got its first win of the weekend against the Royals, thanks to a late-game offensive push.
The contest was scoreless until the fifth, when the Tritons tallied three runs. The first two came when Sandstrom and Talon Van Horn both scored on a Parksville error – which also allowed Temple, who was at bat, to reach first base. One batter later, Temple came around to score on another error.
A sixth-inning single from Shay Buis, which cashed in Lamont, extended the lead.
Koltai earned the win on the mound, striking out six batters and allowing just three hits in six innings of work.
In the nightcap, White Rock’s pitching was again sturdy, as Adam Shumka improved his record to 3-1, going the distance in the team’s 7-5 win. Shumka struck out nine, and allowed nine hits and five runs.
And though the five runs was the most Shumka has given up this season, he was backed up by an offence that smacked five doubles off the Parksville pitching tandem of Calvin Sandhu and Nic Annau.
Douglas went 3-for-4 at the plate, improving his team-best batting average to .314.
The Tritons are back on the road for four games this weekend. They play a doubleheader Saturday at Parkgate Park against the North Shore Twins, and Sunday travel to Victoria for a pair of games against the Mariners.
Through the first month of the season, White Rock has played just twice at home. A home game against the Abbotsford Cardinals, originally slated for last Wednesday at South Surrey Athletic Park was rained out.
