WARRIORS Blues and their younger Rainbow club mates prevailed again in their Tamworth first grade baseball matches at Tamworth’s Field of Dreams on Saturday.
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While the Blues won 7-nil, the Rainbow Warriors had to withstand a surging finish from Knights to win 16-12.
The Rainbows had led 9-nil until the Knights started smashing the ball again.
“We really finished well,” Knights skipper Aaron Harding said.
“We just gave them too much start; made a few too many errors early on.
“Nathan Clegg and Shane Crouch smashed the ball again; the old fella (Crouch) came good today.”
Clegg and Crouch had three hits apiece while Harding also bagged three.
Three young Gunnedah baseballers filled in for the Knights – Simon Mitchell, Brody Cleal and Jai Hick – and all played well.
The Knights gave Craig Haestier a break from pitching, scraping together stints from Grant Sippel, Simon Norvill and Harding on the mound.
James Psarakis had started on the mound for the Rainbows and had three good innings that failed to yield a run. Joey Holt then relieved and copped a little damage with Jeff Chandler finishing off.
Chandler also had four hits while third baseman, Todd Brazel, was a standout with four hits as well.
Right fielder Keyton Hislop also had three hits.
In the other match John Warren was the dominant force; the TBA president and Warrior Blues pitcher gave up just two hits in his side’s 7-nil win over Cougars.
Chris Dyson caught all Warren’s pitches and was impressed.
“He made it easy for us,” Dyson said.
“He would have been very happy with that, nine good innings.”
Nathan Handsaker was another standout for the Blues.
“He had five hits from five (at-bats),” Dyson said.
“He’s done it two weeks in a row now.
“Having Jake (Forsythe) back was good too and he had a couple of hits while Ryan Handsaker had three hits, Dyson belted four from five at-bats and Brent King also chimed in with a hit.”
The Blues led 1-nil early but took control with a three-run fifth innings
Brock Ridgewell threw for Cougars and tried hard with Kris Bird finishing off on a day where John Warren’s control was the deciding factor.