Bristol Baseball Club’s three teams were all victorious at the weekend and completed the first sweep of the season.
The Badgers travelled to Richmond for their BBF AA double header and beat the Dragons 17-5 and 26-4.
In the South West Baseball League, the Bats and the Buccaneers overcame the rain to beat Weston Jets and the Cardiff Merlins.
In Richmond, the Badgers scored 10 runs in the fourth inning of the first game with Nick South, Tom Hollies, Vil Katinas, Par Eliasson, George Braeger and Rich Green each contributing crucial RBIs.
Pitcher Deivydas Trinkunas put in his best performance of the season and struck out seven Dragons while limiting the Richmond side to just five runs.
The second game saw the Badgers pile on the runs with 23 hits. Trinkunas and second baseman Ollie Lock recording four hits each.
Rhodri Theaker had a good game on the pitcher’s mound allowing no runs over three innings to record his first ever win.
First baseman George Braegar had a doubly good day with the bat going six for ten and leading the Badgers in hits over the two games
“It was a much more consistent performance and great to see more players being successful with the bat,” said Badgers player manager Tom Hollies. “I am particularly pleased that George, Ollie and Billy Garrett, who was making his debut with the Badgers, all had really solid games.”
In Weston, the unbeaten Bats clinched the SWBL North Division title and will move into the league’s AA division in the second half of the season which gets underway in July.
The Bristol team beat the Jets 21-12 in a rain shortened game. A strong pitching performance from Nerius Tamosiunas limited the Jets in difficult conditions.
A calf injury to catcher Paul Gardiner saw Darius Tamosiunas take over. He quickly made an impression throwing out a Jets’ runner at third base.
“We are obviously delighted to win the division but we do need to stop the number of fielding errors if we are to make our mark in the second half,” said Keith Weinberg, the Bats player manager. “Michael Hannah was making his debut for us. He impressed at the plate and made a great play at left field at a crucial time to limit a Jets comeback.”
The Buccaneers 11-8 victory over the Cardiff Merlins at Somerdale Pavilion was built on MVP performances from pitchers Ben Briggs and Charlie Taylor. They struck out 11 Merlins over the nine inning game and limited the Cardiff side to just six hits.
Taylor was also involved in the the two double plays recorded by the Buccaneers who also completed a successful run down of a stranded Merlins runner.
The Buccaneers scored consistently after the third inning with Briggs, second baseman Richard Evans and third baseman Neptali Ortega having multiple hit days with Evans also driving in four runs.
“It was a really good performance with everyone contributing either in the field or with the bat,” said Buccaneers assistant manager Phil Midgley. “Apart from a couple of glitches, we were error free and aggressive with our running game stealing 17 bases.”
Whilst both the Bats and the Buccaneers have next Sunday off, the Badgers welcome the Guildford Mavericks to Somerdale Pavilion for a double header.