The sa国际传媒 Premier Baseball League鈥檚 leading hitter 鈥� percentage wise 鈥� also proved he can pitch some on Tuesday night.
Reliever Brandon Feldman made his first start for the Victoria Eagles, going four hitless innings, in leading the Eagles to a 3-1 victory over the Parksville Royals at Lambrick Park.
Feldman gave the Eagles some much needed innings after a four-game weekend. The right-hander, who has six saves to his credit, had nine strikeouts and did not allow a hit going into the fifth. That鈥檚 when the rails came off the track a tad.
Feldman started the fifth with a strikeout, the ball was dropped by catcher Lindon Simmons and Keller Anderson reached on a throwing error to first. An obviously gassed Feldman then allowed three straight walks as the Royals cut it to 2-1.
But reliever Ty Jocko induced a double-play ball, then saved the inning with a fly ball, bagging three outs on five pitches.
鈥淗e鈥檚 been wanting a start since the beginning of the year,鈥� Eagles manager Anthony Pluta said of Feldman. 鈥淗e鈥檚 our hardest throwing player, so I gave him the closing role without him even wanting it and he鈥檚 taken over.
鈥淗e wanted the start, I thought I would give him one and he did a lights-out job,鈥� added Pluta.
Offensively, the Eagles took a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Kyle Murai doubled in Ben Goertzen. Murai then scored on Vinny Martin鈥檚 sacrifice fly.
The game remained that way until Parksville scored on the bases loaded walk in the fifth. Victoria added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth to improve to 24-17, trying to keep pace with Abbotsford for fourth place after dropping three of four on the weekend.
Feldman 鈥� who leads the league in batting at .421, is third in home runs with three and sixth in RBIs with 32 鈥� did his part on the mound, as did Jocko, who allowed just one hit.
The Eagles will face the Victoria Mariners today at noon at Henderson Park, concluding the suspended 3-3 tie after 10 innings from last week, then rounding out their head-to-head meetings with their cross-town rivals.
