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Tigers aim high for current road trip

Taking on the Mid Island Mustangs (13 wins, 15 losses) and Victoria Mariners (16 wins, four losses), SOMBA Tigers coach Junior Deleon expects his team to go 3-1 on a four-game road trip.

Taking on the Mid Island Mustangs (13 wins, 15 losses) and Victoria Mariners (16 wins, four losses), SOMBA Tigers coach Junior Deleon expects his team to go 3-1 on a four-game road trip.

“If the guys play solid, I feel they could take two from Mid Island,” said Deleon, which begins playing tomorrow. “Victoria won provincials last year and have a strong group of seniors.”

Currently the Tigers (eight wins, 14 losses) look to snap a three-game losing streak with their last win, 7-2 against Chilliwack on May 29. The three losses were 5-2 against Chilliwack, and 3-0 and 4-3 to Cloverdale. Deleon said his team has played decently but hasn’t been able to get over the hump to play 14 solid innings (back-to-back games.)

“We find ourselves in games longer when we’re not making as many crucial errors,” said Deleon.

Recently the Tigers were disappointed as they were unable to take advantage of a strong pitching performance by Raphael Jackson, who finished with no earned runs. The Tigers lost 3-0.

“Plain and simple, if we picked up a couple of extra ground balls, different ball game,” added Deleon. “We do it well for 9 ½ of 14 innings.”

Deleon said fatigue isn’t the problem. Rather it’s the players not being able to find that extra gear. The Tigers bench boss said the absence of seniors they lost has made an impact. Right now they only have three veteran players, which he said makes it difficult to teach the younger players. It’s nothing the coach complains about though.

“We have lost a lot of games by two, three runs,” he said. “That’s really not a whole lot. There are a couple of games that still need to be made up.”

Deleon said it’s on his team whether or not they make provincials.

“It depends on how much work we want to put in and how hard we want to try,” he added.

The Tigers next home game is July 16 when they host Victoria.