The Douglas College Royals baseball team opened their 2013 conference schedule at home to great weather and even better fan turn out and support this weekend against a much improved Olympic College Rangers squad.
After nearly knocking the Royals out of the playoff picture a year ago, revenge was sweet as the Douglas pitching staff had the most dominant weekend in program history.
Game One featured sophomore transfer Josh Larsen dominating in his first conference start. Larsen held the Rangers hitless until two outs in the seventh when a line-drive got by a Royals' outfielder for a triple. Larsen went on to strikeout the next hitter to preserve the victory. Clutch hits from Tyler Yorko, Brandon Bufton and Carter Sherban sealed the 4-1 victory.
In Game 2, shortstop Colby Rossi continued his hot hitting with another two hits and starting left-handed pitcher Caleb Lefebvre gave up only four hits while striking out four over six innings of work. Dan Altoe was great in his three innings of relief work to secure the 3-2 save.
The series shifted to Bremerton, Washington on Sunday but the results were very similar to the previous day.
In game 3, freshman lefty Cory Duggan pitched a complete game shutout and carried a no hitter into the sixth inning before the Rangers managed a bleeder into left field.
Duggan struckout six batters to improve his staff lead to 16 K's. Duggan has not allowed a run in the 13 innings he has pitched for the Royals this spring.
Offensively, Yorko led the charge with three hits and Brandon Bufton had the game-winning RBI to add to his two-hit performance.
Game 4 matched the Royals power-armed freshman Quinn Allen against Olympic's ace Devin Smith. Smith was outstanding in his eight innings, striking out nine Royals and only allowing one run. Allen bettered him by allowing no runs in his seven innings behind some great defensive plays by Rossi and Brayden Munro.
The Royals second basemen Jared Frew had the best day at the plate with three hits, but it was freshman catcher Mike Orosz that had the game-winning RBI, with a line-drive up the middle to plate the winning run. Left-handed pitcher Dylan Remenyk and righthander Carter Sherban notched the hold and save, respectively, for the 1-0 victory.
The most impressive statistic was the fact that the Royals pitching staff did not give up an earned run in the four-game series over the entire weekend. Congrats to all the pitchers and pitching coach Shawn Schaefer on this impressive achievement.
The Royals record now sits at 4-0 in conference (7-5 overall) which is good enough for 1st place in the ultra-competitive NWAACC North Division. This is the first time that the Royals have been at the top of the conference. Colby Rossi leads all regular position players with a .375 batting average over the first 12 games of the season.
Next week's matchup features the Royals travelling to conference powerhouse Bellevue College (1-3) on Saturday but will return to Whalley Stadium on Sunday with a double header against those same Bulldogs starting at 1:00pm.
