FEDERAL claimed a tight contest in the in the first of two Division 1 baseball games at Blue Lake Sports Park today.
The Round 4 Mount Gambier and District baseball clash saw Federal victorious to the tune of 7-6 over Central in a contest that could have gone either way.
Central scored first in the bottom of the first inning after Nathan Meinck singled to left-field and scored on Kobbe Chant’s single.
Federal replied in the top of the third when lead-off batter Kane McMilllan doubled to right-field and scored on Wade Chant’s double.
Central then added two more runs in the bottom of the third to keep on top.
However, from there Federal blew the game apart in the top of the fourth, scoring six runs with only one earned.
Sam Shepherd doubled to centre-field, Alex Pearson singled, as did Yuki Akita, which scored Shepherd.
McMillan found himself at first after his hit was errored by shortstop Lachie Tilley and Pearson scored on Clay Carpenters unassisted-out at second base.
Alex Reppin then doubled to right-field, which scored both Akita and McMillan.
Wade Chant drew a walk, followed by Matt DeNys’ single to left-field, then Reppin scored on Travis Younghusband’s out at first base and Chant scored on Shepherd’s second consecutive hit, giving Federal a 7-3 lead.
The Magpies added two more to their score in the bottom of the sixth when Kobbe Chant singled successfully for the second time and Brad Lynagh singled to centre-field.
Both then scored on Colby Muller’s hit deep to left-field.
One more run was scored in the seventh inning after McClean doubled to centre-field and scored on Kobbe Chant’s hit into an error by shortstop McMillan.
On the mound Reppin gave up 10 hits for the winners, one hit batter and picked up 10 strikeouts.
Federal made three errors.
For Central, the pitching was shared by Kobbe Chant and Dylan Chuck.
Between them they gave up 10 hits, three base on ball, one hit batter and picked up six strikeouts.
Central made five fielding errors.
TIGERS DIG DEEP
AN impressive day of batting in Round 3 of Mount Gambier and District baseball saw 32 safe-hits from Tigers and South Indians, but Tigers claimed the honours with a solid 11-6 victory.
South started the scoring in the bottom of the second inning when Alex Lewis walked and scored on Ryan Placucci’s hit back to the pitcher.
Tigers replied in the top of the third after Alex Harkness hit safely to second base and crossed the plate on Tyler Horrigan’s hit to right-field.
The Indians returned serve in the bottom of that inning, when Ben Morale singled into left-field and scored on brother Bruce’s safe-hit.
Tigers then took the lead in the top of the fifth with three runs.
Harkness was hit by pitcher Dean Hamilton and Horrigan singled.
Harkness then scored on Brodie Foster’s sacrifice fly to centre-field and Horrigan scored on Karl Ransom’s single.
Dyllan Lane also singled to centre-field which scored Ransom.
But Tigers lead was short lived, as the Indians bats got going in the even fifth.
Lead-off batter Ben Morale hit safely to left-field, followed by Hamilton’s two-bagger to right-field.
Ben Morale then scored on Bruce Morale’s error to shortstop and Hamilton crossed home-plate on Alex Lewis’ safe-hit to left-field.
Travis Lockwood hit safely into right-field to score Bruce Morale.
Lewis scored the fourth run of the dig when Jesse Balshaw laid down a sacrifice bunt to the pitcher, giving South a 6-4 advantage.
Brayden Morton scored Tigers fifth run in the next inning after singling to right-field and eventually scoring on a wild throw to the plate from shortstop Lewis.
The score remained that way until the top of the ninth when the Tigers bats exploded with seven safe-hits and six runs.
The Indians did not have an answer, giving Tigers the win.
Tigers had 18 safe-hits, two base on ball, one hit batter, eight strikeouts and made just one error.
