The Trail U18 Orioles were in every game, but somehow found a way to lose all five matches against the Kamloops RiverDogs on the weekend.
Trail was sitting in ninth place and out of the playoff picture heading into the Friday, July 7 make-up game vs the RiverDogs at Jason Bay Field at Butler Park.
The Orioles needed at least three wins to vie for a playoff spot, trailing eighth place Kamloops by one game and the seventh place North Shore and VI Mariners by two games.
But the RiverDogs would not roll over.
The Orioles got off to a promising start with ace, Logan Bradford, throwing a no-hitter through seven innings in Game 1. However, Trail lost the match 1-0 due to a series of Orioles’ errors that led to the lone unearned run.
In Game 2, the Orioles led 4-1 through five innings but errors again hurt the home side. Kamloops scored five runs on three singles, a couple of infield errors, and two walks and a hit batter with the bases loaded in the top of six.
Trail scored one in the bottom of six to make it 6-5, but Kamloops answered with one more run in the top of seven for a 7-5 final.
The Orioles Landen Gustafson had a strong game at the plate going 3-for-3 with two doubles and a single. Owen Dickson pitched five and one-third innings, and took the loss despite giving up no earned runs on 10 hits, five Ks and one walk.
The Orioles again battled, but lost both Games 3 and 4 by the same 7-5 scores, before yielding Game 5 to Kamloops in a close 5-4 match.
The final match was tied 2-2 in the fifth when Kamloops scored a run on an error and a single knocked in two more to make it 5-2.
Trail managed to score one each in the fifth and sixth, but could not find the equalizer in the seventh. Landon Uzeloc went 2-for-3 for the Orioles, and Tait Robinson took the loss going three innings and giving up two runs (one earned) while striking out one and walking one.
Trail is scheduled to play two more games in the regular season against the COMBA SunDevils in Kelowna July 16 at noon and 2:30 p.m.