The 15th round of the Mount Gambier and District Baseball League was headlined by the Saturday-night fixture between Central and Federal. In the bottom of the second innings, Central pushed out to an early lead.
Ethan Chuck’s hit to shortstop resulted in a wild throw and Dylan Chuck drilled a ball to centre-field. Koby Chant’s infield safety pushed Ethan Chuck across the plate, while Dylan Chuck was batted in by Alex Ridding.
The Demons clawed one run back in the next inning when Alex Reppin popped one out to left-field safely and eventually crossed home on a wild pitch. But not to be outdone Central scored that run right back.
Josh Chuck hit safely to right-field and scored on Dylan Gull’s infield hit which resulted in a wild throw. In the top of the seventh Matt Nicholls drew a walk and added the run when Brady Cooper hit into a fielder’s choice.
The Magpies put the icing on the cake in the even dig by scoring three runs. Lead-off batter Koby Chant hit safely as did Jordan Aston and Brad Braithwaite into a fielder’s choice to load the bases.
Kyall McClean drew a base on ball which pushed Chant home, while with two out Nathan Meinck’s long flyball to right-field was put down resulting in both Aston and Braithwaite adding to the scoreline. Neither team troubled the scorers for the remainder of the game with Central not required to bat in the bottom of the ninth confirming the 6-2 victory.
The Magpies collected eight safehits, while Federal struck only three and made seven errors. Visiting the Millicent Bandits’ home ground, Tigers hit the scoreboard immediately.
Brayden Morton progressed to first from an error and crossed home on Matt Thompson’s safety. Jacob English then hit into another error and was batted in by Tyler Horrigan.
The Bandits pulled one back in the bottom of the second when Darcy Pink squeezed a Texas-leaguer to centre-field and was batted in by Craig Chittleborough. Tigers added three more to their credit when Dyllan Lane and Morton singled.
Garth Ransom’s two-bagger saw both runners cross the home-plate and before he also scored from a wild throw. In the bottom of the dig, Bandit Tim Nieuwenhuizen hit into an error and was batted in by Chittleborough.
No less than 16 Tigers batters faced Millicent’s Darcy Pink in the next inning and 12 runs were the result to blow the game wide open. The inning was made up of six safe-hits, two base on balls, one hit batter and four errors with only five of the runs being earned.
In the top of the seventh, Morton slammed his third safe-hit of the game and was batted in by Jake England giving Tigers an 18-2 victory. Tigers enjoyed 11 more safe hits than the home side.
