Playing on the road last weekend didn’t help two local B.C. Premier Baseball League teams.
The North Delta Blue Jays and Fraser Valley Chiefs were both winless, the losses dropping the Blue Jays three games out of a playoff position while Fraser Valley fell from fourth place to sixth in the 13-team 18-and-under league.
After a double-header at home against the struggling Victoria Eagles was rained out Saturday, North Delta travelled to Coquitlam Sunday night where they were swept by the Reds.
Coquitlam won a close 4-3 contest in the first game, scoring three times in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Douglas Strohan pitched well for North Delta, giving up four earned runs on six hits and a pair of walks.
But the Jays managed just five singles off three Reds pitchers.
North Delta’s struggles at the plate continued in game two. All three hits were singles in a 3-0 loss.
Pitcher Shane Wlodarczak was forced to take the loss. He allowed just one earned run and struck out seven batters, allowing eight hits and a walk.
Currently on an eight-game losing streak, the Blue Jays fell to 10-19 (won-lost) on the season. Now in 11th place, North Delta must overtake three teams to qualify for the postseason.
They will be at Whalley Ball Park tonight for a 7 p.m. game against the Chiefs, a team which has lost six straight and has fallen back to .500 with a 17-17 record.
Fraser Valley made the most of their two hits in the first of two games Saturday in Nanaimo, but lost 3-2 in extra innings.
The Pirates collected six hits and four walks off Chiefs starting pitcher Caleb Lefebvre, who went the distance. Two of those hits came in the eighth inning, leading to the winning run.
Fraser Valley was shutout the rest of the weekend, losing the second game to Nanaimo Saturday and both Sunday in Parksville by 6-0 scores.
An error led to five unearned Pirates runs in Saturday’s second game, opne in which the Chiefs had just four hits.
The Royals totalled 23 hits in their two games against Fraser Valley pitching Sunday. Alex Hackney and Nathan de la Feraude each had a pair of hits for the Chiefs in game two, the best offensive efforts of the weekend.