Maybe it was the unusually hot conditions that got to the Victoria Mariners.
Or, it was more likely the seven errors recorded on the day.
Costly mistakes led to some troublesome innings of B.C. Premier Baseball League play, but the hosts pulled out a split on a sizzling hot Saturday at Layritz Park, losing the first 10-5 to the North Delta Blue Jays before rebounding in a sloppy 8-7 win.
“There’s a stat for everything now. There’s a stat on pitchers pitching innings under stress and I said I felt like our pitchers and defence played under stress the whole day,” said Mariners manager Mike Chewpoy. “It was like: ‘Oh man, where is this going today?’
“Offensively, we were pretty good. We scored 13 runs, but we gave up a lot. There were principles of the game that we just went against. We’d give up a lead, come back and take it back and then give up a lead-off walk or lead-off error-free passes to the lead-off guy in every inning after we scored.
“That’s bad baseball karma and a tough day,” said Chewpoy. “Hopefully, we get a good night’s sleep and we come back [today]. That’s the thing about baseball, there are a lot of games. We’re in a stretch now where we’re playing 31 games in 37 days, which is pretty much a pro schedule. We have to flush this one and move on.”
The Mariners play host to White Rock today in an 11 a.m. doubleheader at Layritz. White Rock defeated the Victoria Eagles 10-1 and 3-2 on Saturday at Lambrick Park. The Eagles will entertain North Delta today in a pair starting at noon.
On Saturday, the Mariners stumbled out of the blocks as Liam Kruse was tagged for four runs in the first inning of Game 1. He managed to last just three innings in surrendering eight runs on six hits, but three were unearned as Victoria made three errors.
Brennan Flodin went the distance for the Blue Jays and surrendered five runs on 13 hits.
In Game 2, the Mariners went up 5-2 in the bottom of the third before costly errors allowed North Delta to secure a 6-5 lead with a four-run fifth. Chewpoy’s gang rallied with a three-run bottom of the fifth to salvage the win.
