Practice paid off for the Parksville Royals this weekend, as they won two out of four games at Inouye–Wallace Field.
Saturday saw the Royals host the Abbotsford Cardinals in a double header. Keller Anderson was on the hill for the start in game one and pitched a solid game, going the distance and allowing only one run. The Royals weren’t able to put any runs on the board to help the pitching effort though as they dropped game one 1–0.
The Royals had chances to drive home runners but they left six on base and had four errors.
Game two saw the Royals fall behind by two in the first two innings but then the bats came alive in the bottom of the third.
Lenn Nakatsuka was hit by a pitch and then driven home by Nanoose Bay’s Justin Dieleman, his second of four hits in the game. Dieleman would come around to score for the Royals as they tied things up in the bottom of the third.
Dieleman was at it again, drilling another double and coming around to score, thanks to an Andrew Evernden single and the Royals never looked back from there, scoring three more runs in the bottom of the fifth for a 5–2 lead. The Royals would tack on three more runs in the bottom of the sixth and won 8 – 3.
“Dieleman had a heck of a game two against the Cardinals, he hit the ball real well,” assistant coach Bruce Biro said. “We were able to capitalize on our hitting in game two, unlike our first game, and really took it to them. Our pitching was great in both games, Keller in game one and Colton Tuka in game two. They did a good job and luckily we were able to help them out in game two.”
Sunday saw the Royals playing host to the White Rock Tritons and they picked right up where they left off. Owen Kelly started on the bump for the Royals and pitched seven solid innings, striking out six and giving up three runs, two earned, as the Royals cruised to a 8–3 win in game one.
The Royals spread the hitting out, putting eight hits up on the board to go along with their eight runs. Nanoose Bay’s Josh Anderson went two for two at the plate, driving in one run while Evernden had two RBI’s, Dieleman had one and Errington’s Liam Ballance had an RBI as well.
Game two wasn’t so kind as the Royals lost 9–6 to the Tritons.
“We should have had three wins this weekend, for sure, but there’s no looking back,” Biro said. “We are happy with the effort and how the boys battled out there this weekend. They improved greatly over the games last weekend so you have to be happy with that.”