Isles, Royals split
Larkin, Affleck lead the way in Charlottetown’s victory in N.B. senior league action
SUMMERSIDE – The Charlottetown Gaudet’s Auto Body Islanders’ bats came alive in time to earn a split of a New Brunswick Senior Baseball League doubleheader on Sunday.
After the Fredericton Royals prevailed 10-7 in Game 1, the Islanders rebounded with a 13-3 decision in six innings. Both games were played at Queen Elizabeth Park’s Legends Field.
The results leave the lastplace Islanders at 7-15 while the fourth-place Royals are three games ahead of Charlottetown in the standings at 8-10.
ISLANDERS 13 ROYALS 3
Taylor Larkin’s 3-for-4 batting summary paced the Islanders, who received a completegame pitching performance from Darcy Affleck. Affleck’s line read three earned runs, six hits, four walks and four strikeouts.
Jack Kraft (2-3, double, triple, three runs scored), Dillon Doucette (2-4, two runs scored) and Kody Matthews (2-4, two runs scored) were the other top batters for Charlottetown, which led 6-2 after five innings and then scored seven times in the bottom of the sixth to win by the 10-run rule.
Corey Kavanaugh (2-3, double, run scored) was tops at the dish for the Royals.
Corey Wood was the pitcher of record for Fredericton.
ROYALS 10 ISLANDERS 7
After a wild first two innings, the Royals scored twice in the top of the third inning to go ahead 8-6 – a lead they would not relinquish.
Tanner Banks (3-4, three runs scored), Wood (3-4, double, two runs scored) and Dave Barr (3-4, double, run scored) sparked the offensive attack for the Royals.
Brooks Saunders allowed just one run in four innings of relief in earning the pitching victory. Saunders gave up five hits while striking out two and issuing no free passes.
For the Islanders, Logan Gallant (4-4, double), Grant Grady (3-4, three runs scored) and Kraft (2-4, run scored) led the way offensively.
Jacob Beck took the pitching loss. He gave up eight runs (six earned) on 14 hits in five innings of work. He did not walk any batters and finished with four strikeouts.