At the halfway point of the baseball season, the Langley Jr. Blaze are showing no signs of cooling off.
The U16 baseball team swept a pair of weekend doubleheaders to push their winning streak to six games and improve their overall record to an eye-popping 22-2.
Langley edged the Victoria Jr. Eagles 4-2 and 4-3 on Saturday, and then swept the Fraser Valley Jr. Chiefs 5-2 and 10-0 on Sunday.
All four games were at McLeod Park.
Against Victoria in the opener, Langley needed a comeback victory, scoring a run in the bottom of the seventh inning to force extra innings and then adding on two more runs in the bottom of the 10th inning thanks to a two-run double from Mitchell Robinson, which scored Tanner Shaer and Preston Kokatailo.
The Blaze received a dominating performance on the mound from Mitchell Kennedy, who went the distance, scattering two hits and three walks over the 10 innings.
Game two also required a Blaze rally, as they struck for two runs in the sixth to win 4-3.
Michael Dagg picked up the win with five-innings of solid work, while Matt Strother had the save.
Strother also had an RBI, as did Tyler O’Neill and Justin Lawrence.
Facing Fraser Valley on Sunday, the Blaze raced out to a 4-0 lead on their way to the 5-2 win.
Strother drove in another pair of runs and Shaer crossed home plate three times.
Liam Stroud tossed four innings of one-run ball for the win.
And Langley closed the weekend with a dominating 10-0 win, highlighted by Kokatailo’s three RBI performance and two apiece from Strother and Mike Billows.
Jon Bauer picked up the win.
In addition to dominating in terms of wins and losses, Langley players are doing well statistically.
Nick Rutckyj is batting .486, and of his 35 hits, 14 (10 doubles, three triples and a home run) have gone for extra bases. He is also tops in RBIs with 26 and third in runs with 23.
Teammate Tanner Shaer is second in that category, having crossed home plate 26 times.
Blaze players occupy the top four spots for hits, as Preston Kokatailo (28), Shaer (27) and Tyler O’Neill (27) have a monopoly on that statistic.
Shaer is also fourth in batting average, hitting .397.
On the mound, Langley is also excelling.
Mitchell Kennedy has a league-best 7-0 record and he is tied for complete games, with five.
Aaron Mantle (0.72), Liam Stroud (0.92), Kennedy (1.02) and Jon Bauer (1.05) hold spots four through seventh in earned run average and Mantle and Stroud sit two-three for strikeouts with 41 and 40, respectively.