TIGERS Baseball Club has claimed back-to-back titles after defeating South Indians in the Mount Gambier and District baseball grand final on the weekend.
For the second year in a row Tigers defeated the Indians in the first two games of the best-of-three series.
South fought back strongly in game one to lose by one run, but were comprehensively beaten in game two.
Friday night saw Tigers first on the scoreboard in game one of the series, when a runner crossed home plate in the bottom of the first inning.
Lead-off batter Brayden Morton singled to centre-field and scored on Tyler Horrigan’s two-bagger to right-field.
In the bottom of the second Alex Harkness singled to left-field and Morton’s hit to shortstop was fumbled by that player, which allowed him to gain first base.
They both crossed home plate on Ben Marcus’s double to right-field.
Another run was added in the bottom of the third when Brodie Foster picked a walk and scored on Karl Ransom’s drive to centre-field.
South Indians had no answer to the fast, controlled pitching of Brodie Foster, who by this stage had pitched 10 strikeouts.
In the bottom of the fifth, Dean Hamilton replaced Ben Nash on the mound for the Indians, but it appeared to make little difference to the Tigers batting.
Foster hit a two-bagger to left-field and then scored on a dropped
flyball by left-field, before Hamilton closed out the inning for a 5-0 lead.
On the mound Foster appeared to start to tire as Travis Lockwood drew a walk in the top of the seventh and crossed home on an error forced by a hit to
third-base by Jesse Balshaw.
South added two more runs in the top of the eighth when Hamilton hit safely to left-field and scored on an error at short-stop after a hit by Lockwood.
Lockwood scored on Nash’s single to left-field to give the Indians a sniff, trailing three runs to five.
In a last-ditch effort to stay in the game in the top of the ninth, Bruce Morale’s hit to third-base caused an error, but in his run to first, Morale appeared to have caused an injury to his hamstring.
Morale was out at second, but Hamilton crossed home on Damien O’Dine’s long hit to centre-field before Foster struck-out the final batter.
South remained a run short of the game continuing, with the win going to Tigers 5-4.
Tigers had seven safe-hits, one base on ball, five strikeouts, made six errors and left seven runners on base.
South had seven safe-hits, two base on ball, 14 strike-outs, made four errors and left 10 runners on base.
South may rue the choice of not starting Hamilton on the mound as he only had one run scored from his pitching over four innings.
Game 2 saw Horrigan on the mound for Tigers and an injured Morale on the mound for South.
Tigers got a jump in the bottom of the third when Morton hit safely to centre-field, followed closely by a safe hit from Marcus.
Both runners scored on Horrigan’s long two-bagger to left-field.
Harkness singled to left-field in the bottom of the fourth and scored on Riley Rolph’s hit into an error at third base.
The Indians opened their account in the top of the sixth after O’Dine doubled to centre-field and scored on Ben Morale’s hit to second base which resulted in a wild throw.
This was to be their one and only run for the game.
Tigers added two more in the sixth when Karl Ransom clobbered a two base hit to left-field and crossed home-plate on Jesse Foster’s two bagger also to left-field.
Foster scored on Rolph’s single again to left-field.
Marcus drew a walk in the bottom of the seventh inning and crossed the plate on Foster’s sacrifice fly to centre-field.
Tigers rounded out their scoring in the bottom of the eighth when they added their seventh and final run.
Dyllan Lane found himself at first after his hit caused an error by second base.
He scored on Marcus’s sacrifice fly.
The Indians challenged in the top of the ninth, but unfortunately could not push any runs across the home plate, with Tigers claiming the win and the championship 7-1.
Tigers had 10 safehits, one walk, one hit batter, four strikeouts, made three errors and left eight batters on base.
South had seven hits, one walk, three strikeouts, made three errors and left nine runners on base.
