The Parksville Royals managed to snap a seven game losing skid on Sunday, but walked away with only one victory in four tries last weekend at home.
Hosting a pair of double headers, the Royals were in tough against the North Delta Blue Jays and Whalley Chiefs at Inouye–Wallace Field. Saturday saw the Royals and the Blue Jays squaring off for two games in their first meeting this season, with the Royals losing both games. It was a quick turn around to play the Whalley Chiefs on Sunday, winning one of the two games.
Game one Saturday against the Jays was a tight game that went the distance, into extra innings. Parksville’s Andrew Evernden started the game and went six strong innings, giving up two runs on five hits, striking out six batters. Colton Tuka came on in relief and took the loss, giving up the go ahead run in the top of the ninth inning and giving the Blue Jays the hard fought 3-2 win. Errington’s Liam Ballance had an RBI for the Royals, going one for two at the plate.
Game two was a different story as the Royals lost 5–1. Keller Anderson took the loss on the mound, going five innings and allowing five runs, four of which were earned, on five hits with four strikeouts. Cory Bukauskas had the lone RBI for the Royals as they struggled to get the bats going, with only four hits on the game while leaving eight runners on base.
“We had a good first game but it was those little mental errors that got us,” assistant coach Bruce Biro said. “We put a lot of our eggs in the basket of that first game and it showed. It was a good team game that we played though which was nice to see during our losing streak so we knew that things were looking better on the horizon.”
Sunday saw the Royals getting off to a good start against the Whalley Chiefs. Owen Kelly was on the mound for game one and pitched five innings, giving up three runs, two of them earned, on four hits with six strikeouts. Nanoose Bay’s Josh Anderson came in to pitch two solid innings in relief, earning the save as the Royals walked away with a 4–3 win. Evernden had two RBI’s while Len Nakatsuka and Ethan Fox had the other two.
The second game wasn’t as pretty as Adam McKillican, just back from a broken thumb, was roughed up for six runs in the first inning, after which the Chiefs never looked back, taking game two 13–2.
“We hit the ball pretty good, played some pretty solid defense and we had our pitchers throwing well on the mound,” head coach Dave Wallace said. “It was nice to see us get that win, it was a tough game to win but we got the job done. Lots to improve on after this weekend though, that’s for sure.”