The baseball season finally got underway after a few washouts at Blackbutt Park on an overcast Sunday, May 2.
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This week's games were pre-season games with the coaches very keen to see how their charges would perform in a game situation after what seemed a long preparation.
In A grade the Mariners were drawn to play the powerful Spartans team. The Middle Rock Mariners took the field with a strong line up only to run into the power hitting Cam Rutherford who crunched the ball just out of reach of the Mariners quick footed Matt Lindsay into Centrefield.
Further safe hits by Floss Foster and Sean Faichley, an error in the outfield and three walks put the Mariners in a very unfortunate position. However, a great play by second baseman Todd Reid and a strike out by pitcher Nathan Ellul saw a bit of a comeback by the Mariners, finally giving the Spartans 6 runs in the 1st innings.
The Mariners replied with their first two batters slamming the ball to the shortstop area only to see the Spartan's shortstop Floss Foster taking a line drive off the bat of Brock Colley and throwing out the fleet footed Ben Williams by centimetres.
Things were looking grim for the Mariners but a 2 down rally was started by Ryan Bray who reached first base by keeping his cool and picking out 4 balls. Then the mighty Matts, Matt Lenton and Matt Lindsay both thumped the ball deep into the outfield scoring 2 runs.
Although down 6-2 after one innings the Mariners never give up attitude came to the fore. Kye Dures came to the pitching mound and only gave away 3 more runs in the rest of the game. His accurate pitching was backed up by the excellent direction from behind the plate by catcher Tim Harris.
With the improved defence the Mariners batsmen started the long hall back into the game with Nathan Ellul and Matt Lindsay recording save hits while Ben Williams, Ryan Bray, Matt Lenton and Tim Harris all gained walks as determined baserunning by Kye Dures saw him also reach first base.
A great team effort saw a wonderful come from behind win to the Mariners by the slimmest of margins of 9-8. Captain Tim Harris said after the game "It may not have been a competition game but we were very competitive".
In B Grade the Mariner's Green Team played two games after going down to the Spartans 14-2 in their first game but then coming out in a double header to beat the Mariner's White Team 9-3 in a game played in great spirit.
In the Green team Mali Boller had two safe hits while Jacob Deline and Jason Kirkpatrick both recorded one. In the White Team Boris Budiono cracked a tremendous 2 base hit to start off the season. Both Rob Boorer and Jye Klindienst showed great promise making their pitching debuts while David Connors' off season training saw him produce his best pitching effort ever.
The Green team pulled off a double play when Boorer took a fly ball and then fired the ball to Reid Farrel for the putout. The White team, not to be outdone, also executed a double play when Klindienst took a fly ball at shortstop and then threw to Wilber Fletcher for a putout at first base.
The club was overjoyed with the spirit and enthusiasm of the three teams and is hopeful that next week the teams can produce the same spirit in their first competition games.
The White team would love to recruit 2 more players male or female.
If you are interested please ring 65855308 and leave a message.