It was a hail-of-a regular season opener for Parksville’s Quality Foods Royals on the weekend.
On Saturday, wind, rain and hail put a damper on Saturday’s BCPBL opening day for the Royals as their double header against the Mariners in Victoria was stopped after the top of the seventh.
The game, which will be continued at a place and time to be determined, was tied 1-1 when it was called.
“It had been raining most of the game, there was some hail as well, and it started raining very hard in the top of the 7th and the field became unplayable. It gets to the point of being very dangerous,” said Royals’ skipper Dave Wallace, back for his 19th season with the club.
Back home at Springwood Park Sunday to face the Victoria Eagles in their regular season home opener, the Royals jumped out to a 1-0 lead in game one when newest Royal Alex Hendra-Brown hammered a standup double to the fence at left centre field to drive in Sam Visona, only to lose 4-1 after giving up deuces in the fourth and fifth innings.
Calvin Sandhu got the start on the hill for the Royals in that one and pitched four and a third innings.
It was all Eagles in game two as the visitors blew a 3-1 lead wide open with eight runs in the fourth en route to a 11-1 mercy win.
“Game one we had some chances (but) we made some mistakes,” said Wallace, adding “we gave them three runs by not making the plays we were supposed to make, but that said we have to score more than one run to win at this level.”
Game two got off to another good start when Visona led off the game with a triple “but it was all downhill from there. We didn’t play well at all -- it was a very poor effort on our part,” said Wallace.
The good news for the Royals he confirmed, “is that we have 46 games left in the regular season.”
COMING UP
The Royals are on the Mainland this weekend as they take to the turf fields at UBC on Saturday for a double header against the Vancouver Cannons, then face the Coquitlam Reds at Mundy Park on Sunday.
The Royals’ next home game is against those same Cannons Sunday, April 28.
DIAMOND BITS
According to bcpbl.com, Coquitlam Reds’ RHP Curtis Taylor tossed a no-hitter in a 3-0 win over the defending league champions Okanagan Athletics on opening day Saturday. Taylor faced the minimum 21 batters, struck out five, walked none and threw 84 pitches in this dominating performance.