The Save-On-Foods Parksville Bantam Royals, in the hunt for a playoff spot, split two doubleheaders against the fourth-place Coquitlam Reds this past weekend.
The Royals swept the first series with a 4-3 and 5-0 wins on Saturday. But the next days, Coquitlam made the Royals see red as they won both games 10-2 and 5-3.
The Bantam Royals are in ninth place in the standings in the British Columbia Premier League Baseball with 14 wins and 20 losses. They have have 10 left in the season.
In Game 1, the Royals sent starter Liam McNamee to the hill. He would work four innings, giving up three runs before handing the ball over to Gareth MacDonald who put in two scoreless innings to give the Royals a chance as they were trailing 3-1 going into the sixth.
The North Island crew would bring on the offence with a two-run double from Landon Bowers followed by an RBI single from Owen Lagos to give them a 4-3 lead. The Royals turned the ball over to closer Ryan Deagle who nailed down the save to seal the 4-3 win.
In Game 2 the Royals would go with crafty lefty Rylan Baikie who had an excellent outing, going four scoreless before giving it up to Ethan Vaton who would also work two scoreless innings. The Royals took a 5-0 lead going into the seventh, where again Deagle would hold the lead and earn the win.
On the road Sunday, the Royals tripped badly dropping the first game 10-1 and 5-2 in the second game.
Meanwhile the Premier Royals, took on the Fraser Valley Cardinals over the weekend.
The first game went into extra innings and it didn’t go the Royals way losing 4-3 in the end. In Game 2, the Cardinals went on a batting spree to score a 17-7 win.
The Junior Royals suffered heartbreaking losses against the Victoria Mariners and Whalley Chiefs as they lost all their matches by a run.
They lost to the Mariners in Victoria 14-13 and 6-5.
Against the Chiefs, they were edged 7-6 and 5-4.
Batter up: The Premier Royals are at UBC this Sunday to take on the Thunder.
The Juniors are home hosting the North Shore Jr Twins on Saturday, first pitch at 1 pm, and then the Jr Thunder on Sunday.
The Bantams hit the road for games in White rock on Saturday and Abbotsford on Sunday.
— NEWS Staff, submitted