A successful road trip to central Vancouver Island left the North Delta Blue Jays with three wins in four starts last weekend.
The B.C. Premier Baseball League team swept a double header from the Parksville Royals Saturday, then split two games in Nanaimo Sunday against the Pirates.
The Jays improved their won-lost record to 7-5, and climbed into seventh place in the 13-team elite league for players 18-and-under.
Three North Delta batters had a multiple-hit game against the Royals in Saturday's first game in Parksville and the Jays went on to an 11-7 victory.
Ryo Takenaka went three-for-four with two runs scored, while Riley Grewal and Bryan O'Hara each had a single and a double to pace the 12-hit Blue Jays attack. Grewal, Takenaka and Brad Antchak drove in two runs each.
North Delta scored six times in the top of the first inning, and were never in danger of losing their lead. Evan Rogers was the winning pitcher, allowing seven runs on three hits and five walks. He struck out 10 Parksville batters.
The Blue Jays were shut out until the sixth inning, but scored two late runs for a 2-1 win in the second game against the Royals.
North Delta pitcher Dylan MacAhonic held the Royals to just one run over seven innings, striking out eight batters while giving up an unearned run on three hits and a pair of walks.
RBI-singles by Jordy Cunningham and Trent Fletcher in the sixth inning scored Brett Sakaki and Mitch Boychuk to lift the Jays into the lead.
North Delta's only loss of the weekend came in the first game Sunday in Nanaimo, when Luke Manuel was on the short end of a pitcher's duel. Manuel issued just three hits and two walks while striking out nine Pirates batters. He allowed two runs, one unearned, over six innings but took the loss in a 2-0 decision.
Antchak had two of the three North Delta hits, including a double.
North Delta was outhit 6-4 in game two, but three of those hits came in the last two innings as the Jays scored four times in a 4-1 victory.
Sakaki hit a two-out double in the sixth to lift the visitors to a 2-1 lead, scoring Grewal and Boychuk.
In the seventh inning, Takenaka got on base on a Pirates error, allowing O'Hara to score from second base. Takenaka then scored on Boychuk's single.
Ryan Braun threw a complete-game six hitter for the win, also giving up three walks while striking out eight Pirates batters.
Winners of five of their past seven games, the Jays are in Abbotsford tonight (Tuesday) for a game with the 10-4 Cardinals. North Delta defeated the Cardinals 4-2 last month at Abbotsford's Delair Park.