	{"id":114969,"date":"2026-01-16T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bellarinetimes\/?p=114969"},"modified":"2026-01-14T17:13:01","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T06:13:01","slug":"cats-stay-atop-ladder-after-beating-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bellarinetimes\/sport\/cats-stay-atop-ladder-after-beating-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"Cats stay atop ladder after beating Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>GEELONG&#8217;S Premier Women&#8217;s Firsts have retained the spot atop the ladder after beating Carlton in convincing fashion last weekend.<\/p>\n<p>In their first match back in 2026, the Cats impressed with both bat and ball at Princes Park to win by 99 runs.<\/p>\n<p>The fourth-placed Blues won the toss and opted to bowl, with Geelong hitting a whopping 26 boundaries to finish the innings at 8\/255.<\/p>\n<p>Mia Rogers top scored with 81 runs and hit five fours and two sixes in her strong knock. Captain and opener Stephanie Townsend added 33 runs.<\/p>\n<p>With a big target score to catch, Carlton started their batting innings strongly before four quick wickets all of a sudden saw them struggling at 4-60.<\/p>\n<p>From here, the Cats put the foot down and limited the Blues from any form of momentum, bowling them all out for just 157 in the 48th over.<\/p>\n<p>Jess Field and Aanliya Cheeran added three wickets apiece, whilst Sarah Burton took two in the imposing victory.<\/p>\n<p>Geelong will now enjoy a bye this weekend, before their final five matches of the home and away season.<\/p>\n<p>Just three games separate first and last on the ladder, making their run home crucial for a finals berth despite their position.<\/p>\n<p>The Cats&#8217; Seconds went down by seven wickets and the Thirds won by 19 runs, both in clashes against Melbourne. They also have a bye this weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GEELONG&#8217;S Premier Women&#8217;s Firsts have retained the spot atop the ladder after beating Carlton in convincing fashion last weekend. In their first match back in 2026, the Cats impressed with both bat and ball at Princes Park to win by 99 runs. The fourth-placed Blues won the toss and opted to bowl, with Geelong hitting [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bellarinetimes\/sport\/cats-stay-atop-ladder-after-beating-blues\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":249,"featured_media":114970,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-114969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Cats stay atop ladder after beating Blues - Bellarine Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Geelong Women\u2019s cricket stays atop the ladder with a 99-run win over Carlton, led by Mia Rogers and captain Stephanie Townsend.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bellarinetimes\/sport\/cats-stay-atop-ladder-after-beating-blues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cats stay atop ladder after beating Blues - 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