The Bristol Bats held their nerve on the south coast to secure two one-run victories to sweep Bournemouth Bears in their BBF AA clash on Sunday.
The Bats’ pitchers were at the heart of the 10-9 and 12-11 victories with Kwan Cheung and Declan Meads holding on to the one runs leads in both final innings. In the first game, Kwan struck out six Bears batters over his five innings pitched and contributed two hits to the victory.
The Bears had surged into an 8-2 lead by the end of the second inning due mainly to some sloppy fielding by the Bristol side. The Bats responded with six unanswered runs at the top of the third to tie the scores before a sacrifice fly by Ayo-Oluwa Salawu drove in Kwan and Darius Tamosiunas scored on a wild pitch to give the Bats a lead.
The Bears clawed a run back before Kwan sealed the game one victory with two strikeouts and inducing a catch which was held by second baseman Nerius Tamosiunas.
In game two, the Bats found themselves 11-8 down by the end of the fifth inning but four runs over the next two gave them the one run lead heading to the bottom of the final inning. Josh Boulton had pitched solidly over three innings before Meads took over and pitched three scoreless innings out of four to get the win. The Bats offense was productive from the first inning, with Kwan, Boulton, Salawu and Darius Tamosiunas all hitting doubles.
“We fought hard in two good games and are delighted with the way everyone responded when we were under pressure against one of the better teams from the region,” said Bats manager Richard Evans. “Although we went to sleep in the field on a couple of occasions, we showed real determination and good hitting auto get the wins.”
The Bristol Buccaneers also had a long trip, to Southampton to take on the New Forest Knights, coming away with a sweep to stay top of the SWWBL/BBF Severn Division.
The Buccaneers took advantage of some wayward pitching and 16 bases on balls to take the first game 16-4. Pitchers Will Marshall and Harley Jones kept the Knights offense quiet, giving up just six hits.
The second game saw the Buccaneers run riot with a 24-4 victory, with a triple from Noah McCurdy and a double from Marshall being the highlights of an impressive offensive afternoon. McCurdy also impressed from the mound, striking out six Knights over his three innings pitched.
“Whilst there were too many errors, we did what we had to and come away with the two wins,” said Buccaneers manager Rod McCurdy. “Every game going forward is a must win for us but I am confident the work at training will put us in a really good position to make the playoffs.”
At Somerdale, the Badgers split their BBF AAA double header against Bracknell Inferno.
The Bristol side won the first game 10-5 behind two good pitching performances by Deivydas Trinkunas and Alex Martinson. Martinson also had an excellent game with the bat, hitting a double and a triple, driving in four runs. The returning shortstop Mattia Papini had three hits, including a double, and drove in two runs.
Taking a commanding 10-2 lead into the final half-inning, Martinson took to the mound in relief of Trinkunas and struck out the first two batters he faced, before three runners found their way across the plate in a mini-rally for the opposing Inferno. However the Badgers came out on top thanks to an incredible diving catch from Trinkunas, now at third base, to secure the final out, and the victory.
The second game went to Bracknell 6-1 with the Badgers struggling to get to grips with Inferno pitcher and GB Baseball youth product Charles Battista, who went scoreless for six of his seven innings pitched and completed the game in under 90 pitches.
“Whilst the second game was disappointing, we are still on top of the division and able to keep up the push for the post season,” said Badgers manager Rhodri Theaker.
Also at Somerdale, the Brunels hosted Yeovil Whirlwinds and went down 14-9 and 16-8 in their BBF/SWWBL A clash.
The Bristol side were unable to take advantage of the eight fielding errors committed by the Whirlwinds and only registered two hits against solid pitching.
Yeovil took the second game 16-8 as the Bristol pitchers struggled to find the strike zone in the heat, giving up 13 walks in four innings.
Dongwoo Jang, Connor Duffy and Cesar Torres were the pick of the Brunels batters, all having multi hit games.
“Despite the result, we put in a good performance and showed our season long improvement in a lots of aspects of the game,” said Alex Lane-Kieltyka, the Brunels manager.
The club is also celebrating more international call ups this week.
Kat Golik has been selected to represent the GB Women’s national team in the WBSC European Championship taking place at the end of August in the Czech Republic, while Vil Katinas has been selected for the Lithuanian national side.
“Its a great honour for the club to see our players in their national jerseys playing against the best in Europe. We wish them all the success on the international field and will be following their progress closely throughout the tournaments,” said club chairman Rhodri Theaker.
Up next: Next Sunday all the club’s teams will be in action. The Badgers, Buccaneers and Brunels all hit the road to take on Richmond Roebucks, Yeovil Whirlwinds and Bournemouth Bears A respectively.
Bristol bats will host Cardiff Merlins AA at Somerdale Pavilion, with first pitch at 12 noon.