After a 31-13 regular season, the Victoria Eagles head into the sa国际传媒 Premier Baseball League playoffs this afternoon with high hopes.
鈥淥bviously, being the manager, you want to say your team can go the whole way,鈥� manager Anthony Pluta said of his team鈥檚 chances heading into the post-season. 鈥淲e have the pitching and that鈥檚 what carries you.
鈥淲e have a lot of depth: starting pitchers, bullpen pitchers, guys that come in and throw strikes.鈥�
That staff will meet its first challenge against the North Delta Blue Jays as the two teams open their best-of-3 series at 1 and 3:30 p.m. today at Lambrick Park and, if necessary, Game 3 would commence at noon on Sunday.
The Eagles finished second in the standings while North Delta finished seventh at 21-23. The Eagles took three of four from the Blue Jays during the regular season. The last meeting was a 6-0 victory that began an eight-game win streak that was snapped by the Victoria Mariners in the last regular-season game of the year.
None of the Eagles had two hits on that night, which went against the flow of their season, which included three of four wins against the No. 1 North Shore Twins. Tyler Duncan at .371 and Tanner Hess at .369 were sixth and eighth in the league in hitting average. Duncan was also second in home runs with five and Hess鈥檚 37 RBIs were second in the league with Kobe Morris sixth with 32 RBIs.
鈥淵ou don't normally see guys hitting that well in the PBL and there are a lot of guys swinging it,鈥� Pluta said of his club, which won the 2013 PBL championship.
Pitching wise, Fynn Chester was second in wins with nine and teammate Ethan Skuija was tied for third with eight. Skuija was also seventh in strikeouts with 62 and his 1.54 ERA was fourth, just ahead of Chester鈥檚 1.71.
North Delta鈥檚 Daniel Gosselin was second in strikeouts at 84 and seventh in ERA at 1.78.
Meanwhile, the Nanaimo Pirates, in third place at 29-15, will play host to the Whalley Chiefs (21-23) in a 2 p.m. doubleheader at Serauxman field today. Game 3 would go Sunday at noon.
The four winning teams in the playoffs will advance to the championship tournament, which will be hosted by the Eagles the following weekend at Royal Athletic Park. Should the Eagles lose their first series, the championship will become a five-team event with Victoria as the host.
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