South v Tigers

South took on arch-rival Tigers in what many believed to be the match of the round in Friday night’s Mount Gambier and District Baseball League round.

With South coming off a heavy defeat the side was out in search of much needed points to keep in touch for a possible second place ladder position.

Tigers were slightly undermanned with coach Karl Ransom, brother Garth and Ben Marcus all unavailable due to work commitments, placing the responsibility on Alex Reppin to shoulder the workload on the mound.

A fast start was needed for the side that was going to take the points and that’s exactly what Tigers did, bringing three runs across the plate in the first innings.

South was short-lived in the early contest, with Reppin feeling the groove and retiring the first batters of the game without trouble.

Bruce Morale returned to the big league for the night and, while starting on the interchange, it was clear his intentions were to ruffle the feathers of the Tigers players and get under their skin as best he could.

Tempers started to rise and the game went up a notch with Tigers making a couple of errors and falling off the task at hand.

A second hit for the night to Garrett Ha followed by a second hit to Jesse Foste settled Tigers back into a rhythm and another three runs pushed the margin out to a seven-run Tigers lead with South now desperate for some bat on ball action.

Ryan Placucci tried hard again on the mound for South and Ben Nash was vocal in getting his side ‘up and about’, but it was too little, too late and Tigers was able to pick up another win, all but cementing its position for a home final at the halfway part the season.

With a four-game lead and a large difference in defensive runs advantage for second spot, the side looks well poised for finals.

Jesse Foster and Garrett Ha both had a great night with the bat picking up three safe hits, while Matt Thompson again showed why he is one of the league’s in-form players with his all-round strong game.

Centrals v Federals

Centrals took on Federals in a warm Saturday afternoon game in front of a large crowd.

Federals was always going to have its back against the wall taking on the powerhouse ladder leader, but baseball is a funny game and strange things can happen.

A couple club champions returned for Federals to help, with Shane Howard and Clay Carpenter making an appearance in the top grade.

Federals was without top-grade talent which did not help as Alex Pearson and Matt Nicholls were both unavailable, while Centrals rested a few big guns themsleves with coach Dylan Gull, Nathan Meinck and Koby Chant all parked on the sidelines.

Centrals picked up 15 hits for the game to Federals just five and it was always going to be a challenge.

Mitchell Cutting and Alex Ridding shared the role on the mound for Centrals, with Cutting also hitting a home run to make a claim he could be a dark horse for the league best player award to this point in time.

Federals players battled hard and in the sixth inning scored a couple of reward-for-effort runs to keep the smiles on players’ faces.

In the end a mercy rule was called for the game with the score being 18-3 and another Centrals win, setting the scene for a ‘real belter’ on foreign land against Tigers in Naracoorte next week.

Mitchell Cutting with two hits including one home run and Colby Muller were the better players for the Centrals outfit.