The Ridge Meadows Royals midget AAA team only needed three runs to sweep their home-opener with a pair of shutouts, blanking the Richmond Chuckers by scores of 1-0 and 2-0 in their double-header at the Albion Sports Complex on Saturday.
Pitcher Cole Ross took the hill in the first game and needed only 79 pitches to throw a complete game shutout. Brandon Sound hit a solo home run in the second inning to provide the only scoring of the game.
Sound took to the hill in the second game and picked up right where Ross left off, needing only 57 pitches to shutout the Chuckers. The Royals scored a run in the first inning and added an insurance run in the sixth.
The midget AAA Royals are off to a 13-1 start to season, and are a perfect 3-0 in league play, not allowing a single run against in that span.
The Royals opened league play with a commanding 21-0 win over the White Rock Tritons last Wednesday in South Surrey.
The Royals batted around twice in the first inning, putting up 15 runs before all was said and done. Ross started the game, but was only asked to throw one inning as the game was well in hand before the Royals even took the field defensively. Rookie Cole Johnson came in and threw well in his two innings, while Keanen Buckley threw the fourth and final inning as White Rock called the game after four innings.
Offensively, the Royals were led by lead-off hitter and centre-fielder Lucas Tillotson, who was 4-5 with a pair of doubles, three runs scored and a pair of RBIs. Dylan MacDermid also had a solid game, going 2-4 with three RBIs and a run scored.
The Royals also went a perfect 5-0 at the 2011 Best in the West tournament in Penticton earlier this month, outscoring their opponents by a total of 44-17.
The Ridge Meadows midget AAA team have won the Western Canadian Championships five times since 1998, most recently in 2009.
The Royals are Eric Blower, Kevin Bork, Keanen Buckley, Cole Johnson, Nathan Kitamura, Dylan MacDermid, Alex Miyahara, Drew Rendall, Tarin Richardson, Cole Ross, Brandon Sound, Joey Tack, Lucas Tillotson, and Jordan Wolfe.
