The Quality Foods Parksville Royals wrapped up their B.C. Premier Baseball League season Friday with a 2-0 loss to Nanaimo in a makeup of a rained out game at Nanaimo’s Serauxmen Stadium. The team will now set its sights on the Western Canada midget championships with an eye toward unlimbering its offence.
The Royals finished the BCPBL season with a 7-37 record and missed the league playoffs, which are now under way. But Parksville did qualify as the B.C. representative to the Western Canada Baseball Association’s six-team Midget AAA tournament, to be played at Sherwood Park in Edmonton Aug. 12-14.
Last year, the Royals claimed the WCBA midget championship with a dramatic, 11-inning win over St. Albert, AB.
Last Sunday, July 17, the Royals closed out their home season with pair of losses to Abbotsford, 6-0 and 5-4, at Springwood Park.
Pirates 2, Royals 0
In Nanaimo Friday, Liam Janzen had the only two hits the Royals managed against a pair of Pirates pitchers, including a double. Alex McRae, Adam McKillican and Aidan Brot each hurled two innings for Parksville, with McRae taking the loss while allowing a single run on two hits.
Reds 5, Royals 4
Abbotsford jumped out to the early lead with five runs in the first three innings, and a late-inning Royals’ rally fell just short in the final home game of the season for Parksville.
Kiran Carcary’s two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the fifth drew the Royals to 5-3, and Robbie Dhut’s sacrifice fly in the sixth plated Jaydan Saban to make it a one-run game. But the comeback stalled there, with Aidan Brot’s two-out single in the seventh the only additional offence the team could muster.
Saban finished 2-for-3 and Thomas Green, Ethan Christensen and Brot each scored for the Royals. Matt Stevenson took the loss while allowing three earned runs over 6 1/3 innings.
Reds 6, Royals 0
Abbotsford pitcher Chase Stewart twirled a five-hit shutout and Royals starter Adam McKillican struggled to his worst start of the season in the opener of Sunday’s doubleheader at Springwood Park.
Green and catcher Spencer Walton each had two hits for Parksville and Kieran Bowles added a single, but the Royals could not string together
McKillican was roughed up for nine hits and issued four walks over 5 1/3 innings in the loss, but still finished as one of the league’s top pitchers, with a 5-7 record, a 2.88 earned-run average and 84 strikeouts over 75 1/3 innings.
—NEWS Staff