It was not an afternoon of stellar ball as the Victoria Eagles were swept 6-0 and 12-0 by up-Island visitors the Parksville Royals in a B.C. Premier Baseball League doubleheader at Lambrick Park on Saturday.
“We’ve had a couple of games now where we got undone by one big inning,” said Eagles head coach Charlie Strandlund, whose club is off to a 0-4 start to the year, while the Royals are now 3-1. “It’s something I’ve talked to the boys about a little — minimizing innings and battling.
“It’s frustrating for everybody. It’s one of those things, once things start to snowball, nerves maybe creep in a bit and the next thing you know, a four-spot is up on the scoreboard and you’re trying to climb out of a big hole.”
Game 1 was the perfect example. Scoreless after three innings, the Eagles trailed 1-0 after four, but allowed the four-run inning in the fifth, which Strandlund alluded to, thanks to a pair of errors that helped Parkville’s cause.
The Royals scored one more in the final seventh inning, in which another error was recorded by the Eagles, who also hit into three double-plays to snuff out offensive chances.
“We hit the ball well and hard, got a couple of guys on base and eliminated ourselves with a couple of hard ground balls, which they made plays on,” Strandlund said. “It’s early in the season though, four games into a 40-plus games season. There are going to be growing pains and we’ll learn lessons along the way.”
Starting pitcher Noah Doorschot took the loss for the Eagles, allowing five runs on six hits over four innings. Reliever Matt Collett walked in a run with the bases loaded in that fourth before settling down, surrendering one hit, one run and collecting four strikeouts over two and one-third innings. He did walk three, however.
Quinten Davidoff finished up the last two-thirds of an inning for Victoria with two strikeouts.
Left-hander Brayden Baker went five innings, allowing seven hits, but no runs to earn the win for the Royals. Jayden Marsh mopped up with two fine innings of work, giving up one hit and collecting a pair of strikeouts on wicked curveballs.
Victoria actually outhit Parksville 8-7, but the errors and double-plays were costly.
“Brayden threw the ball well, got into some trouble before getting through it. Jayden then came in and shut it down for us,” said Royals coach Dallas Monk. “Offensively, we were putting balls in play and forced them to make some plays. We managed to push some runs across.”
In Game 2, the Eagles were clipped 12-0 in a shortened five-inning affair thanks to the 10-run mercy rule. A big five-run third inning ignited Parksville, which also added three more in the fourth.
Josh Laukkanen threw all five innings for the Royals, allowing just three hits, while Jacob Butler struggled on the mound for the Eagles with three straight hit batsmen and a single that put Victoria behind 2-0 without an out.
It snowballed from there for the hosts.
Zach Waddington had two hits and four runs-batted-in for Parksville in Game 2, while Thomas Green had two hits, scored two runs and had two RBIs.
In Game 1, Ben Swing was 2-for-3 at the plate for Parksville while Parker Swinton was 3-for-3 for Victoria.
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