The Save-On-Foods Parksville Royals’ season came to a grinding halt in North Shore last weekend.
Facing the team that denied them the championships in last year’s final, the Royals weren’t able to muster enough arsenal to stop the Twins and were eliminated in the best-of-three BC Premier Baseball League playoffs on Saturday.
In game one, the Royals weren’t able to solve the Twins’ pitching, which only gave up two hits in seven innings of action. Josh Laukannen started for the Royals and in four innings on the mound, he gave up four hits, six runs and struck out six.
Reliever Shae Verall took over for one inning and did well to stop the bleeding as he allowed just a hit with no runs. Brayden Baker came in for the final stretch but he wasn’t able to keep the Twins from the scoresheet as he gave up four hits and four runs. On the plate, the two Royals that managed hits were Spencer Walton who had a double, and Kiran Carcary who hit a single.
In game two, Brady Radcliffe got the start and did well to keep the Twins from the scoreboard in the first three innings. But in the fourth with two outs, Radcliffe struggled to close out the frame and wound up surrendering six earned runs. Jacob Volkers took over but gave up two more earned runs for the Twins to take an unassailable 8-0 lead.
The Royals were able to score a run in the six. In the seventh, with Ryan Humphreys coming in for Volkers, the Twins got another run to end up with a 9-1 victory.
The Kelowna Athletics is hosting the final five of the BCPL playoffs this weekend at Elks Stadium in Kelowna. The Athletics are hosting the event so they get an automatic berth into the league final tournament. The other teams that will be competing in Kelowna are Victoria Mariners, Langley Blaze, Abbotsford Cardinals and North Shore Twins.
Meanwhile, the Save-On-Foods Parksville Junior Royals ended their regular season with four consecutive losses at home, dropping doubleheaders against the North Shore Junior Twins 9-1 and 4-1 on Saturday and to the Victoria Junior Eagles 17-6 and 11-3 on Sunday.
The Junior Royals finished in 11th place in the regular season with 14 wins and 34 losses. They did not advance to the playoff round.
