It's too soon for the Coquitlam Reds to panic, yet playing with a sense of urgency sure would help.
After a 4-1 start to the B.C. Premier Baseball League season, the Reds have won just two of their last eight games and sit 6-7 heading into this weekend's action.
Reds head coach Kyle Williams isn't so much ready to crack the whip with his players as he is merely wanting to hear the crack of their bats.
"We haven't played well over the past two weekends," said Williams, whose squad took a pair of one-run wins from the Whalley Chiefs on Saturday at Mundy Park before the Victoria Eagles swept them in a twinbill at home Sunday. "The pitching has generally been consistent [but] our defence has been somewhat inconsistent. The major issue is we simply aren't hitting."
The Reds opened against Whalley by trailing 3-0 before rallying for three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to eventually force extra innings, where they again came from behind by scoring twice in the bottom of the eighth to prevail, 5-4.
In the nightcap, Mitchell Jackman drove in the deciding run in the bottom of the sixth as the Reds clung tight for a 1-0 win, with Curtis Taylor pitching a complete-game, three-hit shutout.
Against the Eagles, the Reds coughed up five runs in the top of the second and fell 7-6 after a valiant comeback bid that saw them out-hit Victoria by a 9-7 margin. Next, Coquitlam failed to cash in on their few chances and dropped a 4-0 count.
The team held a 45-minute players-only meeting after the two losses versus Victoria.
"The leaders called [it] on their own and that's a really positive sign from my perspective, that a bunch of 17- and 18-year-olds would take the initiative and ownership over their play to spend that amount of time talking about how to turn things around," Williams said. "I have no idea what was said in there but I'm really impressed that they met and hopefully it leads to something positive."
From a coaching standpoint, Williams believes the Reds' woes of late are rather obvious.
"The guys we thought would hit .225 are doing exactly that [but] there are a number of players who were supposed to hit .300 or better who are hitting .200," Williams said. "Because of that, we simply can't score runs.
"We have to find a way to play with more intensity. We can't seem to put seven good innings together. We play in spurts, get excited when things seem to go well... but we can't seem to generate the intensity to get rallies started."
Infielders Jackman and Austin Macdonald are currently carry the offensive load, Williams added, while pitching ace Jeff Heidema is doing his part and made some great defensive plays last weekend. Williams hopes their play will soon grow contagious on the squad. "We have a lot of talent and the coaching staff still believes in the players we have," he said. "We have shown an ability to battle from behind and we simply have too much ability not to turn things around over the next weeks. Another positive is that the players have very high expectations for themselves and want to be successful as a team and as individuals."
BASE LINES: The Reds host the 5-7 Parksville Royals in a doubleheader tomorrow (Saturday) at 12:30 and 3 p.m., and face the 10-2 Nanaimo Pirates in another twinbill Sunday at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
