听
The Nanaimo Pirates proved they will be a team to be reckoned with as the sa国际传媒 Premier Baseball League championship fired up on a glorious day at Royal Athletic Park.
In a matchup of ace pitchers, Pirates right-hander Josh Burgmann got the best of Victoria Eagles鈥� Ethan Shuija as Nanaimo recorded a 7-3 win in the evening game of the round-robin, four-team tournament.
Burgmann was cruising right along until a walk, stolen base and two passed balls scored a run for the Eagles in the bottom of the third. His teammates then picked up the sticks in the fourth.
Zach Diewart led off with a double, took third on Shawn Arabsky鈥檚 single then scored on Matt Skingles bunt single. Two hitters later Aaron Page took a Skuija pitch deep for a three-run home run.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 a big win,鈥� said Burgmann, who had nine strikeouts. 鈥淭he boys battled hard. Aaron Page came up with a clutch hit there and all the boys battled. Our offence has been great all year.鈥�
Nanaimo added a run in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings before the Eagles clawed two out in the seventh, but it was too late.
Skuija lasted five innings, allowing five runs on six hits and had seven strikeouts. Evan Smith came on in relief in the sixth.
Victoria entered as the tournament as No. 2 team while Nanaimo was No. 3.
It was a day for lower seeds as the No. 4 Okanagan Athletics bounced back from 3-0 and 5-2 deficits to defeat the No. 1 North Shore Twins 6-5 in extra innings in the afternoon opener. Mitchell Rennie had three RBIs for the A鈥檚.
In today鈥檚 games, it鈥檚 Nanaimo vs. Okanagan at 10 a.m. and Nanaimos vs. North Shore at 12:30 p.m. The Eagles will then play two straight at 3 p.m. vs. North Shore and 5:30 p.m. against Okanagan. Should a tiebreaker be required, it would go at 8 p.m. at RAP.
The top team will advance to Sunday鈥檚 12:30 p.m. final. The second- and third-place teams will meet in the semi-final Sunday at 10 a.m.
Twitter/tc_vicsports
