Parksville Mosquitos buzz around competition
It was an exciting weekend of baseball up at Sprinwood Old, as the hometown Reds rallied for silver and punched their ticket to the AA Mosquito Rep provincials.
Oceanside opened the three-team round-robin format tourney with a 10-2 loss to a tough team of Ladysmtih Cannons “in what looked like a case of opening game jitters.”
The Reds then split a pair against the Salt Spring Islanders, winning game one 16-6 and coming up short 7-6 in game two.
In their final game of the tournament on Sunday against Ladysmith, Oceanside silenced the Cannons with a well-earned 10-7 win.
“That game was really a great battle,” said Oceanside Minor Baseball president Mike Parlow.
He added Ladysmith was looking to run the table and finish 4-0 “and sent out their two best arms against our boys. Turned out our batters liked the faster pitching and our pitching and defence were stellar as well in that one.”
Salt Spring finished third with a 1-3 record and only the top two advance to the BCs.
Reds’ co-coach Andy Macdonald was duly proud of the whole team and pointed to the play of Brandon Nicoll “who was very strong in all aspects of the game and throughout the tournament. Brandon’s consistent work ethic and support of his team mates provides motivation to the other players on the team.”
Also earning extra props were Brandon Snyder and Jaxon Ackerman who had strong performances on the mound; Jimmy Shworan who came through with some key hits; and defensive standouts Sammy Atagi and Nolan Macdonald.
Atagi, Shworan, Nicoll and Snyder all earned game MVP honours, “however all the players deserve credit for working together to qualify the team for the provincial championships,” said coach Macdonald.
DIAMOND BITS
The Mosquito AA Reds will be Oceanside’s sole representative at the Provincials this year.
According to Parlow, OMB’s Peewee AA group “could not advance against a very strong Island Peewee pool. Our Mosquito A team, which included six Tadpole players on a 13-player roster, played with great spirit but finished out of contention in their zones as well.”
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