Both ladder leaders show no mercy

Tigers get the job done over South & Central dominate again

Friday night baseball saw South take on arch rival Tigers in what many thought believed to be the match of the round.

With South coming of a heavy defeat they were after some 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, this meant the responsibility was handed to Alex Reppin to shoulder the work load on the mound for Tigers.

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 were short lived in the first part, with Alex Reppin feeling the groove and retiring the first batters off the game with out trouble.

Bruce Morale returned to the big league for the night, whilst 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, and this is exactly what he did.

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

A second hit for the night to Garrett Ha followed by a second hit to Jesse Foster settled Tigers back to the task at hand and another three runs made then game a seven run lead to Tigers and South were now desperate for some bat on ball.

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 the Tigers were able to pick up another win and all but cement their position in a home final at the halfway point of the season giving themselves a four game lead and a large difference in defensive runs advantage for second spot.

Jesse Foster and 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 inform players n the league with his all-round strong game.
Central took on Federals in a warm Saturday afternoon game in front of a large crowd. Federals were always going to have their backs against the wall taking on the powerhouse ladder leaders, but baseball is funny game and strange things can happen.

Federals saw the return of a couple club champions to help with Shane Howard and Clay Carpenter returning to the top grade.

Federlas were without top grade talent which didn’t help as Alex Pearson and Matt Nicholls were both unavailable whilst Central rested a few big guns themsleves with coach Dylan Gull, Nathan Meinck and Koby Chant all on the sidelines.

Centrals picked up 15 hits for the game to Federals just five so it was always going to be a challenge. Mitchell Cutting and Alex Ridding shared the role on the mound for Central with Cutting also hitting a home run and making a claim that he could be a dark horse for the league best player 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 the face.

Seejuut Esufali took the role on the mound for and certainly held his own with errors the main issue for the young Federals side.

In the end a mercy rule was called for the game with the score being 18 to three and another Central win which shapes up next week as a real belter on foreign land against Tigers in Naracoorte.

Mitchell Cutting with two hits, including that home run, and Colby Muller were the better players for Central.

RESUTS
DIVISION 1
Tigers 8 d South 0; Central 18 d
Federals 3
DIVISION2
South 14 d Tigers 2; Central 14 d
Millicent 0
DIVISION 3
South 9 d Tigers 6; Millicent 14 lt
Federals 20; Central 12 d Central
Magpies 2
UNDER 18
Federals 18 d Tigers 2
UNDER 15
Tigers 9 d Central 6; Central 8 d
South 4
UNDER 13 GOLD
Central 12 d Tigers 3
UNDER 13 BLUE
Tigers 5 d Federals 1