Mount Gambier Legends baseballers get the job done at Adelaide tournament

The Mount Gambier Legends Baseball Club sent two teams to the Adelaide Invitational Masters Baseball Carnival held at the Southern Districts Baseball Club at Christie Downs over the King’s Birthday Long Weekend. Outside of the local Legends Baseball Masters Tournament held in April this is the first time two Legends teams have represented Mount Gambier.

The Carnival was held over two days with both teams playing three games on Saturday a further round robin game Sunday morning and both teams played in finals in their respective divisions in the afternoon.

Legends Blue, playing in Division 1, played out a 4 all draw in their first game against Northern Aces, a game which was marred by errors and not much batting by either side. Next up was Adelaide Aces Grey and they were given a bit of a touch-up by the boys from the South East winning 10 runs 0 with Phil Clark in complete control on the hill picking up six strike-outs in three inning to completely shutdown the Aces batters. John Verrity was in great touch with the bat picking up three safe-hits from three at bats. Next up was sister team Adelaide Aces Blue who pulled off a 6 run to 2 win against a fighting Legends whose best batter was Jason Henke with two from two at bats. Last game was against the Bulls, on Sunday morning, who didn’t manage to score a run against a rampaging Legends team that scored seven. Luke Lovekin was the standout batter with two hits from three at bats. The playoff for the Bronze Medal in their division was played in the afternoon and the legends team had a convincing eight run to two win against Adelaide Aces Grey. Nick Pink pitched five strikeouts in three innings while Phil Clark and Pink were best with the bat picking up two hits each. Adelaide Aces Blue defeated Northern Aces in the Gold Medal Game.

In Division 2, Legends Gold found the going tough against Flinders in their first game of the series going down ten runs to three. Adelaide Bluze was next up and the Gold team were too strong running out winners twelve runs to six. Steve Wanganeen was best with bat hitting safely three times from four at bats. Fourteen hits from four inning between both Legends and Playford in game three saw a tight tussle with the Mount Gambier team getting over the line finally winning ten runs to seven. Best of the batters was Peter Walter who batted a 1000 with three hits from three at bats. First up on Sunday morning was the Adelaide L’aces, an all-women’s team. They put up an excellent fight giving the Legends a bit of a scare. A win for the Mount team would mean playing for gold or a loss relegated them to a play off for bronze. Eleven runs to nine saw the Legends hang on to go through to the main game. Best batters were Phil Altschwager with three from three and Simon (Hippy) Wright with two from two. In the gold medal playoff Flinders proved too strong for Legends winning fourteen runs to two. Flinders completely outhit their opponents with the Legends only hitting safely three times in four inning giving them a silver medal in a great weekend of baseball for two Mount Gambier Legends Baseball teams.

SILVER MEDAL WINNING TEAM:
(Top right – back row) Steve Wanganeen, David White, Grant Stump, Phil Altschwager, Peter Taylor, David O’Dine, John Farrington and (front row) John Quin, Simon Wright, Kevin Telfer, Paul Casson, Darren Pink, Peter Walter and Bat Boy: Black Spiderman AKA Nate Moloney

BRONZE MEDAL WINNING TEAM:
(Bottom right – back row) John Verrity, Phil Clark, Ken Rowe, Andrew Storr, James Parker, Nick Pink and (front row) Dave Pitkin, Zac Ratcliffe, Luke Lovekin, Jason Henke