Curtis Sawchuk had a rough ride on the mound for the Prince George Grays.
The southpaw started on the mound for the Grays in the opening game Friday of the 2012 Senior Men's Baseball Championship and was roughed up by the bats of the Kamloops Sun Devils.
Graham Allard took over for Sawchuk at Citizen Field after just one-third of an inning of work where the lefty allowed five runs on two hits and was the losing pitcher in a 10-5 loss.
"He just had a tough go with the umpire," said Allard about the tight strike zone. "He struggled a little bit.
Kamloops designated hitter Dillon Morgan blasted a three-run homerun off Sawchuk to open the scoring in the bottom of the fifth inning and then Rob Morrison had a two RBI single to put the Sun Devils up 5-0.
The Grays fought back scoring singles in the second and third innings before notching a pair of runs in the fourth inning to pull within a run at 5-4. Jay Cook had a solo homerun to left field in the third inning. But that's as close as they'd get.
The Sun Devils added a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth inning and then scored three more in an error-ridden sixth inning for the Grays, chasing Allard from the hill.
"I was getting a little bit tired and had a couple of walks so it was best that we put a new pitcher in," said Allard.
The Grays also made six errors in the field resulting in some runs for Kamloops.
Prince George produced some offence in their final at-bat, loading the bases as the Sun Devils relief pitcher Mike Juarez struggled, giving up two singles and two walks which scored a run. With two outs Juarez left the game and Jake Hein was able to get the Grays Chris Clark to flyout to centre field to end the game.
Lee Ingram pitched a solid six innings for the Sun Devils to earn the win.
The Grays return to the field today, 6 p.m. against the Burnaby Bulldogs.
"We need a quality start out of our pitcher that gets us into the fifth or sixth inning," said Allard.
