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Royals snap skid in doubleheader split

Parksville baseball team returns home to host Victoria Sunday
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Zach Waddington sprints for first base after dropping down a bunt in the Parksville Royals’ doubleheader opener against the White Rock Tritons at Springwood Park Saturday, May 13, 2017. — Adam Kveton photo

Jacob Ingersoll slashed a two-run single in the top of the seventh inning as the Parksville Royals rallied to snap a six-game losing streak with a 3-1 win over the Victoria Mariners in B.C. Premier Baseball League play Sunday in Victoria.

The Mariners rallied for a 2-0 victory in the second game of the teams’ doubleheader, but the Royals’ pitching and defence were once again in evidence after the squad surrendered 18 runs in a doubleheader sweep at the hands of the White Rock Tritons in Parksville one day earlier.

Trailing 1-0 through six innings of a pitchers duel between Parksville’s Brayden Baker and Victoria’s Duncan Brens-Knight, the Royals (7-9) got their seventh-inning rally started when Cam MacNeil singled with one out and Thomas Green followed with a double that left runners on second and third.

Nicholas Yu then singled to score MacNeil, and moved to second on the throw as Green advanced to third. Ingersoll, a fourth-year player from Campbell River, then drove home both runners with the winning runs and chasing Brens-Knight from the game.

Baker was left in the game to start the bottom of the seventh, but after he loaded the bases with one out on a single and two walks, Jayden Marsh was called in and nailed down the save with a strikeout and a fly ball.

The second game was another pitchers’ duel, with the Royals’ Josh Laukkanen and the Mariners’ Fynn Chester matching zeroes on the scoreboard through five innings. Victoria (8-3) broke through for a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth and this time there would be no late-game heroics for Parksville, which managed just two hits, including a double by Spencer Walton.

The Royals will try to even their record when they host Victoria’s other BCPBL entry, the Eagles, in a doubleheader beginning at 12:15 p.m. Sunday at Springwood Park.

White Rock sweeps

The Royals led the first game of Saturday’s home doubleheader 2-0 through three innings, but were doomed by a seven-run fourth by the Tritons (9-6-0) as the visitors cruised to an 11-3 victory.

Robinder Dhut, who struggled with his control while walking six batters in 3 2/3 innings, was tagged with the loss. Zach Waddington and MacNeil each had two hits in the loss, and MacNeill, Nolan Baker and Ingersoll each drove in runs for the Royals.

White Rock closed out the sweep with a 7-2 win in the second game. Royals starter Finn Martin was tagged for three runs in the first and, after Parksville closed to 3-1 when Baker scored on a passed ball in the third, gave up four more runs in the fourth. Baker finished with two hits and Walton drove in a run to pace the Royals offence.