Tigers average 11 runs per game over their Island trip, sail home with four wins

Feels good to be travelling for baseball again, doesn’t it? The boys from Delta were sure feeling good all throughout their weekend trip to the Island, both on and off the field. Their first stop was at Robins Park in Nanaimo on Saturday afternoon, then many of the boys took to the beach to celebrate a pair of wins later that night. On Sunday, the Tigers were very fortunate to get the chance to play on Royals Field in Parksville, a pristine ballpark normally home to the Junior and Senior PBL teams. They took care of business once again to wrap up the weekend sweep of the Pirates and Royals.

TIGERS 10, Pirates 0

               The Tigers offense sputtered out of the gate, unable to make solid contact against the Pirates’ soft-throwing starter. Macin MacDonald reached on a hit-by-pitch in the top of the 1^st, and Sawyer Shears slapped a single to right in the 2^nd, but they couldn’t generate anything beyond that. Both runners made it on with two outs, and the Pirates infield took care of the rest, fielding five groundball outs in the first two innings. It wasn’t until the top of the 3^rd that the Tigers offense really got going, with the bottom of the order providing the jolt of energy they were looking for. Tyler Olfert led things off with an 8-pitch walk, then they took advantage of a couple of errors by the Pirates’ pitcher. Aksel Van Tol came up and hit a comebacker to the pitcher, who couldn’t corral it immediately and his throw to first pulled his teammate off the bag, allowing Van Tol to reach safely and Olfert to scurry over to third. His subsequent pick-off attempt evaded the first baseman and let Olfert trot home for the first run of the ball game. As the inning continued and the order turned around, MacDonald stepped in for his second plate appearance, this time with two out and two men in scoring position. He brought them both home with a base hit to right, extending the Tigers lead to 3-0. Ezra Murti kept the Pirates’ offense at bay with his electric fastball over the first three frames, limiting his opponents to one baserunner per inning. Van Tol caught well for him behind the dish in the first half of the game, also denying a steal attempt in the bottom of the 1^st with his accurate arm.

               One thing that the Tigers haven’t always done well this season is memorize the batting order. Fuoco and Chow accidentally swapped spots in the order to lead off the top of the 2^nd, but nothing came of it because they were both retired. They corrected their mistake second time through the order, as Fuoco led off the top of the 4^th with Chow waiting on deck. It’s a good thing they did, because Fuoco crushed one over the wall in straightaway centre for his first home run of the season to make it 4-0. They added to it later in the inning without the benefit of a hit, cashing in two more runs thanks to a dropped third strike plus a couple of walks and wild pitches. In the top of the 6^th, the Tigers put together their third three-run inning of the game. Fuoco and Chow, batting in the correct order once again, were both plunked to open the frame. Shears drove in Fuoco with his second hit of the game, then Olfert picked up an RBI right after that with a textbook team AB. Taylor Pearce joined the party with a screaming grounder that kicked off the third baseman and into left field to give his team a 9-0 lead. The Tigers couldn’t push a tenth run across in the 6^th to force a potential mercy scenario, but they did tack on another in the 7^th thanks to grade 7 Desmond Tregaskis, who earned himself his first RBI of the season. The mercy might have been able to help Murti get through the full game while staying under his pitch count, which going into the bottom of the 6^th was of utmost importance because he entered the inning with a no-hitter still intact. Unfortunately it didn’t last, as the Pirates’ top two hitters touched him up for a couple of two-out hits. Murti still managed to preserve the shutout by getting the next batter to ground out, and that would be the last out he recorded in this contest. He racked up 8 strikeouts over his six marvelous innings of work before handing it off to Tregaskis for the 7^th, who sat down the side in order to clinch the 10-0 victory for the Tigers.

TIGERS 8, Pirates 4

               Game 2 saw the Tigers offense deliver more of a balanced attack, scoring at least one run in every inning except the 6^th. That was exactly what coach Frick was going for after all, who decided to shuffle the batting order a little bit with an opposing left-handed starter looming. The Tigers tallied one in each of the first two innings, but they could’ve had more if not for having a runner thrown out at the plate by 15 feet in each of those innings. MacDonald lifted a high fly to right-centre with Chow tagging at second base, and the ball went off the centre fielder’s glove, who had to run a long way to track it down. Chow was thrown out trying to score from second on the play, but Smyan Billing salvaged the inning by finding the hole on the right side of the infield, bringing MacDonald home on the soft liner. In the 2^nd, Murti sent one deep to left that landed just out of reach, and Fuoco was gunned down at the plate trying to score from first. Once again, the Tigers made up for it as Sam Grad poked one to left for a two-out RBI single. The Pirates’ bats came to play in the back half of the doubleheader, as they rallied to tie the game in the bottom of the 2^nd. A leadoff single came around on an opposite-field double by young shortstop Rylan Clark, who had himself a game. He was rock solid on defense all day, displayed incredible hustle all over the field and went 3-for-3 with three RBIs in the game, also scoring the tying run for the Pirates in the 2^nd. Van Tol got the start (his first) for the Tigers after catching the front half of game 1, and he battled through a tight zone in his four innings of work. He struck out three and only allowed those two runs in his longest outing of the season.

               The Tigers took the lead right back in the top of the 3^rd with a couple of two-out doubles from Chow and MacDonald. Chow smoked one into the right-centre gap, then MacDonald skied one down the right field line on the seventh pitch of the at-bat that dropped untouched. They scored two more in the 4^th on just one hit, but it was a clutch one from Pearce. Finley McConnell got hit by the last pitch thrown by the Pirates’ starter, and Grad later drew a walk against the new pitcher. He immediately advanced himself into scoring position so Pearce could drive in both him and McConnell with a two-out, two-RBI bullet through the left side. In the 5^th, the Tigers added another pair of runs, kickstarted by a booming double off the bat of Shears, who just missed a leadoff home run by a few feet. MacDonald brought him home with a rocket up the middle, and later came around to score on sac fly from McConnell. The Pirates refused to lay down, coming back with two runs of their own in the bottom of the 6^th to cut their deficit to 7-4. Jake Fehr took over on the mound for the Tigers and needed only twelve pitches to retire the Pirates in the 5^th, but they strung together a couple hits off him in the 6^th. A two-out walk was succeeded by a double, setting the table for the youngster Clark to do some more damage and get his team back in the game. Olfert and his typical savage base-running got one of those runs back for the Tigers in the top of the 7^th, then Pearce would come in and shut the door in the bottom half to lock up the win.

Run parade in Parksville

               The boys were back at it bright and early on Sunday in Parksville, taking on a depleted Royals roster. The Tigers have endured their share of injury troubles throughout the season – case in point, Morgan MacCubbin made the trip to the Island with the team despite having injured his shoulder a week ago and not being able to play. With that said, injuries have proven to be a Royal pain for Parksville, so much so that they only had eight healthy players available to them for the doubleheader, which meant they had to borrow a left fielder from Delta for every defensive half-inning. Their bats were feeling it in the first inning of both games, jumping out to a 3-0 lead in game 1 and battling back from falling behind 3-0 to make it a one-run game in game 2. Aside from that, they couldn’t muster much against Tigers’ pitchers McConnell and Shears. McConnell threw all seven innings of an 8-4 win in game 1, then Shears made huge strides with his performance in game 2, battling through a long first inning and rebounding to throw five complete, also striking out eight. It was clear that the Royals lacked the pitching depth to take on the Tigers in the second game. They rallied for 11 runs in the second inning ALONE, and combined for 16 hits from 12 different players as a team. The final was 18-2, putting a bow on what was without a doubt the Tigers strongest overall weekend of baseball this season.

Taking the long weekend off

               One game remained on the July schedule, a Wednesday night home game against the Coquitlam Reds, and the Tigers came away with a 5-1 win. Taylor Pearce delivered the game-winning hit in the bottom of the 1^st and earned the win on the bump as well. Shears blasted his second home run of the year out to right-centre for some insurance in the bottom of the 5^th. Tigers pitching struck out 14 on the night in another winning effort, their eighth straight league victory. They’ll now enjoy a break from baseball over the August long weekend, time they’ll use to recharge and get healthy in preparation for their run at the league championship a month from now. Also, the Tigers development team’s season is approaching its conclusion, with their last two home games happening this Saturday against Whalley. They picked up their third win of the season in Whalley on Tuesday night, and they’ll try to end on a positive note this weekend.