Premier Royals Shine at Langley Invitational  

The Save-On-Foods Parksville Royals went 3-1 at the 2019 Langley Blaze Invitational this past weekend.  Last year Parksville won the 20-team tournament that includes teams from Alberta, Ontario, and the US.  

Game 1 saw the Royals take on Island rivals the Victoria Mariners.  The boys in purple, with Jacob Volkers on the hill, dispatched the Mariners in convincing fashion 6-1.  Next up were the Fraser Valley Cardinals who currently sit in 4th place in the PBL.  Brodie Comerford got the start and the Parksville defence was on the top of its game as the Royals downed the Cards 3-0 to finish the first day of the tournament undefeated. 

Game 3 would turn out to be the pivotal game as the Royals met the Coquitlam Reds, the only team left in the their pool that stood in their way to the semi-finals.  Parksville started rookie Anson McGorman and found themselves down 4-0 after two innings.  But McGorman hung tough after that and the bats came alive.  The Royals scored 2 in the 3rd and another 2 runs in the 5th to tie it up.  The Reds put one across in the bottom of the 5th and Parksville battled back again to tie it up in the top of the 7th as Tim Holyk’s double scored Connor Hall.  In extra innings, Trevor Nicoll led off with a triple but the Royals couldn’t bring him home.  The Reds scored in the bottom of the 8th to punch their ticket for the semi-finals. 

In the final game of the round robin, Parksville started Nolan Macdonald against the Brampton Royals.  The Royals cruised to a 9-1 victory and finished up a solid tournament effort.

Junior Royals Split with North Shore Twins  

The Save-On-Foods Parksville Junior Royals, coming off a strong performance the previous weekend in Tacoma, travelled to North Vancouver to take on the 3rd place Twins.  Parksville sent staff ace Ethan Dean to the mound and the big lefty battled through 4 1/3 innings as he struggled to find his usual command.  Dean would allow 2 runs on 3 hits before turning things over to reliever Nathan Underhill.  Underhill did not have his good stuff and the defence couldn’t pick him up, making a key error behind him.  Underhill was replaced 4 batters later by Austin Walper who closed it out.  At the dish, things started out well for the Royals in the 1st inning as Elijah Oelke drove in Walper to take an early lead.  And then in the 3rd, lead-off man Cameron Bell crushed a triple to right and was promptly driven home by Cody Jackson’s RBI single.  In the end, the Twins were too much for the boys in purple this game and North Shore won 8-3.

Game 2 saw starter Ellis Vugteveen get the call and he did not disappoint.  Vugteveen was dominant, striking out 11 Twins over 5 innings and allowing just 2 runs to that point.  This was the second time this season that Vugteveen had recorded double-digit strike-outs as he had struck out 10 vs the White Rock Tritons back on Apr 21.  Vugteveen ran out of gas in the 6th and was relieved by Trevor Carter who battled a surging Twins offence to close things out.   The Parksville bats were on fire as the Royals scored 10 runs on 10 hits with contributions across the line-up.  Austin Walper went 2 for 4 with 2 RBI and 2 stolen bases.  Nathan Underhill was 2 for 3 with 2 runs scored and Cam Bell had a hit, scored 2 runs, knocked 2 in, and stole 2 bases.   Final score Royals 10 and Twins 8.

Next up:

The Premier Royals will send 4 of their own to the All-Star game in Langley on Saturday and then on Sunday play a double-header at Layritz Park in Victoria vs the Mariners.

The Junior Royals head off to Coquitlam for two games vs the Reds on Saturday and then come home to Springwood Park on Sunday to host the Victoria Eagles.  First pitch at noon, concession opens at 11:30.

The Bantam Royals host White Rock at Bill Moore Park in Courtenay on Saturday.  Games start at 1 and 3:30.