South Gambier’s bowlers have some work to do after it could not bat out its full 80 overs against Penola in Saturday’s red ball battleground of Blue Lake Sports Park.
Despite going on every captain’s instinct and batting first, South skipper Camron Jorgensen may regret his call after his boys were knocked over for 179 and the Eagles swoop into the second day with all 10 wickets in hand and a sunny forecast to look forward to.
But the opening hour belonged to the Demons after Daniel Loupos showed what he is capable of from the top.
Unlike the opening white ball game of the summer where Loupos collected a golden, the dashing right-hander showed no fear against the red pill and smashed the first delivery for four.
The early strike set the tone for his innings as he motored at a similar rate to the cars buzzing past on the adjacent Princess Highway.
Loupos looked for one boundary ball an over and reached 30 before his defences were broken by the left-arm angle of Lachlan Jones.
Fellow open Ryan Kuhl played a more circumspect innings and a chain of 13 straight dots created too much pressure for the youngster to handle.
However, his older brother Adam Kuhl showed strong form following a stint playing cricket in Adelaide and looked to steer South deep into the day.
Initially things looked promising during a stand with Stephen Easterbrook until Jones struck gold for the second time in his 12 over spell.
The fall of Easterbrook was quickly followed by short stays from Michael Sims and Luke Zadow as the Demons were battling to reach triple figures.
Eventually Adam Kuhl pushed South over the milestone as he gritted his teeth for 28 off 85 balls.
But the right-hander threw away his good work when he unsuccessfully tried to take down chinaman bowler Jack Mullan and was caught by a diving Dermot Moore at mid on.
Jorgensen also fell to Mullan, but the Demons bat deep and their long tail wagged when needed.
Robert Drenthen took matters into his own hands and struck a maximum from his fourth ball.
He paired nicely with keeper Ethan Sims and they managed to carry South beyond 150.
Eventually Drenthen’s fun finished on 18, but Elwood Geary picked up where his predecessor left off hitting a swift 11 before becoming Jones’ fourth and final victim.
Michael Waters had little trouble removing number-11 Jakob Opie and ending the innings with six overs left in the day.
Sims held strong until the end finishing with a new career highest score of 32* and managed to add some respectability to South’s score.
Jones almost became the first man to collect a five-wicket haul this summer, but finished with 4/50 on a day when all five bowlers took wickets with Waters and Mullan also securing multiple scalps.
The Penola openers dug deep to survive the day with Lewis March scoring nine off 24 balls and Matthew Honner yet to get off the mark from 12, while four byes boosted the score to 0/13.
