It may be wet but Parksville’s Quality Foods Royals are in the midst of a drought where wins go, punctuated Saturday when they lost both games of their damp double header against the visiting White Rock Tritons.
Thumped 10-0 in the opener, the Royals turned in four errors and were trailing 8-0 after two innings, and the Tritons added two more in the third for the five inning mercy win.
The Royals turned in seven errors in the opener, and were out hit 10-0.
The pinstripes bounced back with a better game two, wrapping out six hits to White Rock’s, five but, the Tritons burnt the hosts for three unanswered runs in the top of the seventh and final inning for the 5-2 final.
Parksville jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st in that one and both teams brought one across in the second for a 2-1 Royals’ lead after two, which is how it stood through to the top of the sixth when White Rock scored to tie the game 2-2, then added three more in the top of the seventh and final inning.
The Royals had two on with one out and the tying run at the plate but couldn’t cash them in.
“The first game was probably our poorest effort of the year,” Royals’ skipper Dave Wallace said after, “I mean we gave up 10 runs and all of them were unearned — we just didn’t play very well in all aspects of the game.”
Game two he confirmed “we played a lot better, but still too many mistakes that in the end cost us the win, and that’s been our Achilles heal this year, we haven’t made enough of the plays we’re supposed to make, and at this level it’s going to burn you every time.”
Earning props for their efforts Saturday were pitchers Calvin Sandhu, Clarke Ohman and Hayden Scheck.
“They pitched very well — they deserved a better fate, they just didn’t get any support defensively,” said Wallace
The sweep lifts White Rock to 7-15 and has them sitting 10th in the 13 team high performance league, while the last place Royals slip to 2-13.
GAME ON
The Royals are down the road against the Nanaimo Pirates on Wednesday for one game (6 p.m. start at Serauxmen Stadium), then travel to the Mainland on the weekend for double headers against a couple league powerhouses in the Abbotsford Cardinals and Langley Blaze.