Royals take two at home, drop both on the road

The Save-on-Foods Parksville Royals hosted North Delta Saturday at Springwood Park and came away with 2 wins.   Game 1 was a pitcher’s duel with Royals starter Brodie Comerford trading zeroes with the North Delta pitcher in every inning except for the 3rd.  That inning saw center fielder Ben Munger get aboard with a walk and promptly steal second.  The catcher’s throw to 2nd was offline and Munger took advantage and went to third base.   Josh Laukkanen shot the next pitch into right field to score Munger and that was all runs Comerford would need in support.   Comerford struck out 5 batters and threw 50 of his 75 pitches for strikes.   He finished the regular season with a ridiculous 0.23 ERA over 30 innings pitched with 2 wins and 2 saves.

Brayden Baker started game 2 and threw 5 1/3 innings on the way to a 5-4 victory.  Shae Verral continued his late season surge with 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.  Kiran Carcary, Ben Munger, and Brady Radcliffe each had 2 hits during the game to lead the attack. 

Sunday in Langley, the boys in purple were in tough against the 1st place Blaze.  Josh Laukkanen got the start and fired  6 strong innings allowing 2 runs, 1 earned.  Spencer Walton led the offence with a double and Brodie Comerford chipped in with a single and that was all she wrote.  Final score Blaze 2 Royals 0.

In game 2, Ryan Humphreys got the start and struggled with his command, walking 8 over 2+ innings allowing 8 runs, 6 earned.  Shae Verral pitched 4 clean innings to give the bats a chance to answer back.   The Royals surged late, scoring 2 in the 6th and 3 more in the 7th but the comeback fell short and Langley won 8-6.  Kiran Carcary had 2 hits and 2 runs scored.  Kieran Bowles had a hit, an RBI, and 2 runs scored.  Comerford, Radcliffe, and Baker each recorded an RBI.

Parksville finishes the season with a record of 28-20, good for 6th place in the league.  The Royals will open the playoffs in North Shore against the Twins on Saturday afternoon in a best of three series with the winner moving on to the Final Four tournament in Kelowna the following weekend.  Like regular season games, live on-line scoring will be available for all playoff games from the Royals website for those fans who can’t follow the team to the mainland. 

Junior Royals trying to find consistency

The Save-on-Foods Parksville Junior Royals started their weekend in North Vancouver against the Twins and game 1 was a barn-burner.  Starter Travis Frank allowed 6 runs on 7 hits over 5 innings before giving way to Jaden Barr who came on in relief.  Down 6-4 in the 7th, the north Island squad rallied and scored 2 runs to tie it up and hoped to send it to extra innings but the Twins pushed one across in the home half of the inning to make the final 7-6.  Jordan Dennis went 2 for 3 with 2 runs scored and Jacob Stockton’s double in the 3rd knocked in 2 runs.

On Sunday back home at Inouye-Wallace field, Nolan Macdonald took the hill against the visiting White Rock Tritons.  Macdonald was masterful and had the White Rock hitters talking to themselves as they struggled to make solid contact.  When all was said and done, Macdonald pitched his second consecutive complete game, allowing just 2 hits and 2 unearned runs.   As it happened, White Rock’s Josh Fluet also came to compete and threw a complete game no-hitter to earn the victory for the visitors by a score of 2-0.

Nathan Lagos got the call in game 2 and battled through 3 innings, giving up 2 runs.   Brier Pilon was in to pitch the 4th and the White Rock batters had his number, scoring 6 runs.  Laine Rogers pitched the next two innings and allowed 3 runs on 5 hits.  At the plate, Lagos continued to lead the way going 3 for 3 with 2 doubles.  Jordan Dennis was 2 for 2 with a run scored as the Royals dropped the second game 11-1.

The Juniors close out the regular season this weekend with four games at Springwood Park.  First pitch Saturday is at 12:15, concession opens at 11.  It will be a busy weekend at the park as, in addition to the Royals playing, Oceanside Minor Baseball will host the Mosquito (U11) AAA Tier 2 Island zones Friday through Sunday.  Come on out and cheer your teams, big and small!