The Coquitlam Redlegs' bats fell silent during the final stretch of the B.C. Junior Premier Baseball League.
The Redlegs dropped a double-header to the visiting White Rock Jr. Tritons Saturday, going 2-5 over their final week of the regular season to finish with a record of 25-19.
"We had a stretch of not really hitting the ball very well, not like we did earlier in the season, and it came back and haunted us a little bit," said manager Bill Green.
The Redlegs will have time to try and bring their bats back to life, enjoying an 11-day layoff until the playoffs begin on Thursday. Coquitlam currently sits in fifth place, but where they finish will depend on how other teams do in the final games of the season which wraps up on Sunday.
"Our season finished on time, basically, and the rest of the teams have a lot of makeup games and it's an extended type of season," said Green.
The Jr. Tritons scored twice in the seventh to take the second game of Saturday's double header 2-0 after using a four-run 12th inning to win the opener 6-3.
"A couple of errors in both games cost us the game but the reality of it is we didn't hit the ball. We didn't put any offence on the board. We got zero runs in one game and three in the other one in 12 innings and that's way below what we've been doing all year," said Green. "That's really the root cause of where we're at right now. We just dropped off in our hitting right through the lineup basically."
He said the lack of offence puts pressure on the pitching and team defence to not make any mistakes.
"There has to be a balance of offence to take care of that stuff, and when it comes up short then every error becomes big and every walk and every hit that you give up becomes bigger than it really should be."
The playoffs will see teams divided into two pools of four teams, with each playing a three-game round robin and the top two teams in each pool advancing to the semifinals.
l While their season may be over, a pair of Coquitlam Reds have been recognized for their B.C. Premier Baseball League achievements. Max Hollingsworth was named as first-team conference all-star outfielder. Hollingsworth led the league with nine home runs, a slugging percentage of .723 and 24 extra-base hits. Curtis Taylor was named as one of the pitchers for the first-team all-stars, earning recognition for his no-hitter and being part of a Reds squad that led the league with 312 team strikeouts.
