The Nanaimo Pirates keep splitting doubleheaders, and they’ll keep striving for that sweep.
The Hub City Paving Pirates premier baseball team lost 1-0 and then won 6-5 against the Victoria Mariners on Saturday at Serauxmen Stadium, then won 5-3 and lost 3-2 to the Vancouver Cannons the next day at Serauxmen.
“We just keep doing the .500 thing. It’s starting to get a little old,” said Doug Rogers, Pirates manager.
The team has split its last five doubleheaders, all of them on home field.
“This team seems very nice, very polite, very cordial on the field, instead of putting the guy down and stomping on his throat when he’s down…” Rogers said. “We need to get that fire.”
Some of that fire was there Saturday for a couple of tight ball games against the rival Mariners.
The second game against the M’s went to extra innings and the Pirates were able to win in nine even after they got down by two runs in the eighth.
Devon Geary hit the game-winning RBI single, his second hit of the game. Zach Diewert was 2-for-2 with two walks in the win and Alex Rogers threw a nine-inning complete game, allowing five hits, two earned runs and striking out eight batters.
In Saturday’s other game, the Pirates couldn’t provide any run support for Luke Skingle, who threw a complete game, giving up four hits, no earned runs and striking out five. Diewert had the only two hits for his team.
On Sunday against the Cannons, Tanner Linn earned the win, throwing six innings. Shawn Arabsky had two hits and two runs scored and Diewert and Aidan Goodall had two RBIs each.
In the rematch, the Pirates got down early and their late comeback attempt fell short. Diewert was 2-for-3 and had both his team’s RBIs.
Doug Rogers said his team missed an opportunity to distance itself from the Cannons in the standings. He didn’t think his guys were focused for the finale, overconfident because they already had a win in the bag and two strong pitchers available to take the mound.
“There’s more to the game than just throwing, hitting and running,” he said. “There’s so much more to it and a lot of it’s mental.”
GAME ON … The premier Pirates visit the Parksville Royals on Wednesday (June 12) at 6:30 p.m. at Springwood Park.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com