THE 23rd edition of the Mount Gambier and District baseball Taylor/Probert Shield was played Saturday night at Blue Lake Sports Park in front of a good crowd, which included life members and sponsors.
Central was successful for the 13th time, with Federal now on nine wins, with one draw since the shield’s inception in 2000/2001.
Batting first, Federal failed to trouble the scorers, but a different story emerged when Central picked up the bat.
Lead-off batter Kyle McClean crunched a two-bagger to left-field, but the next two batters went down, flying out to the outfield.
Then five consecutive safe hits saw four runners cross the plate.
Alex Ridding singled to leftield, Koby Chant followed with a single to right-field to score McClean, while Dylan Gull hit safely to centre-field to give all three outfielders a piece of the action in three plays.
Dave Harris followed up with a single to right-field that scored Ridding and finally Colby Muller’s blast to centreield for a stand-up double scored both Chant and Gull.
From that point on the game was mostly controlled from the mound, with Central’s Dylan Chuck and Federal’s Clay Carpenter showing their strength.
Federal was on the board in the top of the third inning after Riley Rolph picked a walk and scored on Craig Nicholls safety to centre-field.
Central added one more in the bottom of the fifth when Nathan Meinck drew a base-on-ball and was batted in by Koby Chant when he singled to the outfield.
Both defences then held tight, with the game going the required eight and a half innings, with Central not having to bat in the bottom half of the last dig.
The Magpies now head straight to the grand final in a best-of-three series commencing on Friday night, March 22, with the possible next two games to be played the following day.
TIGERS d SOUTH INDIANS
THE South Indians were knocked out of finals contention in Friday night’s Division 1 baseball clash at Blue Lake Sports Park.
Tigers easily accounted for the Indians, whose frustrating season has finally ended.
In the top of the first inning, Tigers were first on the scoreboard, as Mitch Thomson found himself at first base on a fielder’s choice and was batted in from Matt Thompson’s sacrifice fly to left-field.
The Indians levelled the score in the even dig when lead-off batter Ben Nash picked a base-on-ball and scored when Nat Anderson’s infield flyball was put down.
Tigers scored four unearned runs in the second inning to take the game away from the red and white.
Joe Sims was onboard from a error at third base, Pat Kermond drew a walk and Sims scored on a wild pitch.
Ben Marcus was hit by a pitched ball, Mitch Thomson’s Texas leaguer to left-field scored Kermond and finally Marcus and Thomson crossed the plate on Jai Hillstone’s crunch out to right-field.
Two more runs came in the next at bat for the orange and black.
Kane Harrison doubled to left-field and Sims came up with a base-on-ball.
They were both batted in by Jake England as he hit deep to left-field to give Tigers a handy 7-1 lead.
The Indians cut the lead when they replied with two runs of their own.
Youngster Deklin Joyce picked up a safe hit to left-field and was batted in by Jett Lewis, who also hit safely to left-field.
Lewis ran across home plate on a wild pitch, but the Indians were unable to add further to their score for the remainder of the game.
Tigers inflicted more pain with a further three runs in each of the sixth and seventh digs.
Mitch Thomson picked a walk, Hillstone’s hit to second base created an error and Thomson crossed on Matt Thompson’s single.
Kane Harrison was on from a fielder’s choice, which saw Matt Thompson dismissed at second base, but Pat Kermond’s long clout to centre-field batted in both Hillstone and Harrison.
Mitch Thomson was again lead-off in the seventh inning when he ran two bases on a dropped flyball.
Matt Thompson picked a walk and Mitch Thomson crossed on a wild pitch, while Sims and Kermond both walked.
Matt Thompson also crossed on a wild pitch as the Indians fell to pieces in the dying stages and Sims was batted in by England.
The mercy rule was then invoked by the umpire to give Tigers a 13-3 win.
Tigers had 10 safe hits for 10 runs batted in, eight base-on-ball, two hit batters, three strikeouts and made three errors.
South had six safe hits for one run batted in, four base-on-ball, five strikeouts and made four errors.
