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The Border Watch : October 24th 2013
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42 SPORT The young and Kuhl LUKE LOVEKIN LUKE LOVEKIN Centrals 11 d South 2 CENTRALS have been running a young side in the Mount Gambier and District Baseball League (MGDBL) for the better part of two years and have been quite successful with it so far, taking it all the way to the grand fi nal dance last season but just not quite having the goods to get over the line. With that said, the team that ran out on Saturday night was at two ends of the spectrum, with all except one person being under the age of 21 and the exception to that rule was Steve Kuhl. No one really knows the exact age of Steve “Kuhlly” Kuhl – our records don’t stretch back that far. What we do know however is that by the time Centrals’ second oldest player on its team was born (that player is Dylan Chuck by the way), “Kuhlly” had played over 300 games and been the MGDBL’s best and fairest player fi ve times. Proving he deserves a spot in this week’s senior line-up, Kuhl drove a Bruce Morale pitch to deep left fi eld for a two runs batted in (RBI) triple. South had a couple of big inclusions to its side with Ben Nash back playing at third base and Dean Lane back on the bump to start the game, and it looked like it was off to a fl ying start when Brian Whitwell took a walk to start the game. Whitwell was driven in off of a line drive double to centre fi eld by Morale to score. Centrals however would return fi re with a lead off walk of their own by Nathan Meinck. James Gurry advanced Meinck to third on a single to right fi eld before Chuck drove in Meinck to tie the game. Kuhl then drove in Gurry on a single to leftfi eld. That is the last time that South would hold the lead in the game with Centrals teeing off on South’s pitchers, opening it up for another two runs in the second, two in the fi fth, three in the seventh and another two in the eighth, giving Centrals a strong win with the fi nal score 11-2. South will need to improve its defence if it wishes to be at all competitive this season, allowing four runs in two innings to be scored due to errors is not going to win Division 1 games of baseball. Centrals’ “young” team seemed more composed in defence and it had a young life to its offence that will make any defence work hard this season. South appears to be lacking some depth to its line-up and is in need of some on base guys in the top of its line-up to give Morale some runners to drive in, and some more depth in the fi eld to be competitive. Centrals’ starting pitcher Josh Aston pitched eight innings, he struck out seven, walked three and gave up six hits and two runs. He threw 131 pitches on his way to the fi rst complete game win of the season. Kuhl led the hitting with three safe hits from fi ve at bats, with a triple and two RBI’s. For South, Morale led the way with the bat only a home-run away from hitting for the cycle (single, double, triple, homerun) with three hits from four at bats and a walk. He also drove in two RBI’s. Federal 6 d Tigers 3 FINE PITCHING: Warriors’ Eleanor McCintock recorded six strike outs in the A grade match against Concordes on Saturday. Demons on top ROUND one of the Mount Gambier Softball League saw the new A/B grade competition kick off at Blue Lake Sports Park on Saturday. The Demons A grade side started its season in sensational fashion, with a convincing win over Warriors 12-7. HARD FOUGHT: Youngster Josh Amoroso fought hard with the bat against Tigers in the Under 13 Gold Division on Saturday. dissapoint with quite a rivalry building between the two teams. Tigers had starting pitcher Brodie Foster back this week and also league best and fairest and younger brother Jesse Foster, although none of that appeared to matter when Federal’s Alex Reppin watched the fi rst four pitches to walk to fi rst. Reppin would steal second before coming around to score on an infi eld basehit by Wes Patterson. Tigers would reply swiftly in the bottom of the fi rst inning when a single to centre fi eld by Brodie Foster would drive in Ben Marcus to tie the score at 1-1 at the completion of the fi rst inning. Federal were unable to bring around any of its four base runners in the second and third inning to score. Federal walked Joe Atkins with two down in the third just in time for Kane Harrison to drive a ball to right fi eld and score Atkins to give Tigers their fi rst lead in a match this season, 2-1. Both Federal and Tigers would continue the pitching dual in the fourth and fi fth with no runs scored by either team. Tigers’ Tyler Horrigan led off the bottom of the sixth inning with a single to right fi eld. Horrigan would steal second and then advance to third on a Joe Sims drive to centre fi eld before Jesse Foster would add an insurance run on driving the ball deep enough to score Horrigan. That is all the scoring Tigers would be able to manage in the sixth, sending the game into the seventh with Tigers still leading 3-1. The meat of Federal’s line-up would fi nally get to Brodie Foster’s pitching in the top of the seventh inning when Scott Gladstone singled to centre fi eld with one out and then was brought in to score on a line drive to left fi eld by Travis Younghusband. FOR the second week in a row Tigers and Federal squared off against one another and again the game did not 42 - The Border Watch, Thursday, October 24, 2013 Both teams would go away quietly in the eighth inning, leaving the score 3-2 Tigers’ way heading into the last. Federal’s heart of their line-up was due up in the ninth and Gladstone wasted little time in driving the fi rst pitch he saw for a double to left fi eld. Wes Patterson also took an aggressive approach to the ninth when he drove the second pitch he saw to centre for a single and also scored Gladstone to tie the game. Matt Parslow doubled to centre fi eld to score Patterson and give Federal the lead as the crowd came to life. Federal would score another two runs before the inning was over, giving it the lead heading to the bottom of the dig. Holding the lead through the ninth, Federal took its second win for the season. Reppin snared the win with a pitching line of eight and a third innings pitched with six strikeouts, four walks, 12 hits and three runs (two earned). The Federal pitcher has taken his game to the next step, throwing better pitches and keeping runners tighter on base which could help the side going deep into the season. Tigers are missing some pitching depth from the last couple of seasons and that may hurt them down the stretch, especially if Brodie Foster gets more playing time in Adelaide. This weekend will see fi rst versus second when Centrals play Federal at 8pm on Friday night. Saturday night’s 7pm clash will see third versus fourth when South take on Tigers. Both games will be held at Blue Lake Sports Park. Mount Gambier Baseball League Round 2 results: Division 1: Central 11 d South Indians 2; Federal 6 d Tigers 3. Division 2: Millicent 14 d Federal 5; Central 14 d Tigers 5; South 14 d South Indians 13. Division 3: Central Magpies 11 d Millicent 9; South Indians 12 d Federal 2; Tigers 8 d Central 3; Naracoorte 9 d Millicent Bandits 6. Under 17: Central 8 d South Indians 5; Federal 11 d Tigers 4. Under 15: Central 9 d Tigers 8; Federal 11 d Millicent 2. Under 13 Gold: Millicent 11 d Federal 2; Central Magpies 15 d Central 2; Tigers 14 d South Indians 2. Under 13 Blue: Central 16 d Tigers 6; Naracoorte 15 d Millicent 12. Demons controlled the game from start to fi nish, and batted extremely well against a warriors team who made uncharacteristic errors in the fi eld from the get go. Maggie Breen was on song and held the Warriors batters to only fi ve hits for the entire game, and was well backed up by her fi eld, who made fewer errors than Warriors on a day where the wind and sun made outfi elding a diffi cult proposition. With the bat Demons were led by Annie Breen with four from four safe hits and Grace Millard with three from four. Warriors managed to string together some hits in the fi fth innings, and score fi ve runs, but by that stage Demons had a big enough lead that they were never going to be challenged. In the other A/B match of the day, Warriors overcame Concordes in a match dominated by the good batting performance of the victors. Eleanor McClintock pitched well for Warriors, recording six strike outs. Best of the Concordes batters was Julie Beck with two safe hits, and Jo Hart and Allana Jones, who each batted in two runs for Concordes. Warriors were lead by McClintock and Georgia Hood, both with three from four safe hits. Ultimately the hitting power, and a few untimely errors by Concordes fi elders led to a decisive victory for Warriors in this game. Concordes B overcame Demons 11-8 in the other A/B match at Blue Lake Sports Park on Saturday. Concordes were led with the bat by Amanda Winkley four from four hits and Marie Pollock with two from four. Best for Demons were Grace Millard and Angie Williams. In the C grade, Demons defeated Concordes in a close one 12-10, and Warriors defeated Wanderers 11-5. In the under 13 game Warriors recorded an 8-5 win over Demons. Mount Gambier Softball League results A/B grade: Demons A 11 (A. Breen 4, G. Millard 3, M. Breen, C. Manning, K. Cawthorne 2, M. Martlew) d Warriors 7 (T. Hood 2, A. Hood, E. McClinton, T. Koop); Warriors (U17) 15 (E. McClintock, G. Hood 3, I. Walker, M. Hann 2, T. Wilsmore, N. Howard, Y. King) d Concordes A 5 (J. Beck 2, C. Dwyer, A. Wilson, J. Hopgood, J. Hart, E. Hart, A. Jones); Concordes B 11 (A. Winckley 4, M. Pollock, D. Patzel 2, C. Wanderhorst, B. Tilley, S. Brown) d Demons (U17) 8 (G. Millard, C. Manning, A. Williams 2, S. Beck). C grade: Warriors 11 (M. Hann, T. Wilsmore 3, G. Hood, I. Walker, N. Damanschenz 2, S. Wilsmore, B. Aston, E. Doody) d Wanderers (R. Johnson 4, T. Kaigg 3, T. Hatch 2, G. Davis); Demons 12 (J. Merrott, J. Chant 2, K. Cawthorne, E. Smith) d Concordes (N. Saunders, K. Griffi ths, T. Jones, K. Nitschke). VISIT US ONLINE borderwatch.com.au
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