Skip to content

Pirates earn first two wins

The Mid Island Pirates and the Parksville Royals split a BCPBL doubleheader Sunday in Duncan
web1_baseball_C163QP02001C
Baseball season intensified as the mid Island’s teams duelled on the diamond. (FILE PHOTO)

Baseball season intensified as the mid Island’s teams duelled on the diamond.

The Mid Island Pirates and the Parksville Royals split a B.C. Premier Baseball League doubleheader Sunday in Duncan, with the Pirates winning 3-1 in the early game and the Royals winning the rematch, 11-2.

The Pirates are the Nanaimo-based team, but the Royals have a lot of Nanaimo players, and so there was a playoff feel, said Doug Rogers, Mid Island manager.

“It was a fun game to coach in, it was a fun game for the kids to play in,” he said. “A lot of our kids have never been in a situation like that before. They’ve never been in the PBL before, which is a huge step, and then all of a sudden you ramp up the intensity. You could see the looks on their faces. They were scared, they were excited, all the different emotions. It was really cool to see.”

Stats from the game weren’t available at press time, but Pirates pitcher Gavin Pringle threw a complete-game victory and Marcus Steen had multi-hit games in both halves of the doubleheader.

The Pirates also earned a split against the Whalley Chiefs the day before in Vancouver, winning 2-1 and then losing 5-1. In the victory, Cole Anderson gave up four hits over 6 1/3 innings and Alex Jinda had two hits. In the loss, Steen hit an inside-the-park home run.

“I’m pretty happy with the results so far, so early in the season,” Rogers said. “They’re showing quite a bit of promise early.”

GAME ON … The Pirates and Royals play again this Sunday (April 23) at noon and 2:30 p.m. at Parksville’s Springwood Park.

sports@nanaimobulletin.com