16/05/2023
Claycutters bookend games with runs, but Merlins take wins.
Cardiff Merlins Baseball Club 1 journeyed to a sunny field and left Cornwall with two wins, keeping up their 100% season record.
With Eurovision songs still being hummed, the Claycutters showed fight in the first and avoided a zero-run game in the second. They will take heart from their performance, which stood proud against the best in the league.
Game 1. The Cutters started strong by keeping the Merlins off the board and taking first blood via ShortStop Richard Price.
An RBI single in the 3rd from Left Fielder Chris Peters continued the scoring by bringing two across the plate, but in the same inning, the Merlins posted 5. That’s when the gears changed.
Cardiff got production going in the 4th and 5th, and the scoreboard started ticking in their favour. Claycutters couldn’t answer and the Merlins picked up the win. 12-3 final score.
Game 2 and up stepped Merlin’s Ace Saliya Wijesinghe - a Sri Lankan international pitcher. The Claycutters took time to upload to his war chest, but as the game grew, so did the walks and hits - Player of the Week, Peter Carlin finding success here.
Some clever outfield play by the Claycutters - Nick Peters adding three outfield catches to his gutsy pitching performance in Game 1 - kept the scoreline respectable.
The final inning. Claycutters hit, walked and stole themselves onto the scoreboard with First Baseman Dave Becker spearheading. The pressure led to two runs landing - the first runs against Wijesinghe of the season. The final score was 14-2.
The Claycutters went toe-to-toe with a Cardiff team who are surely destined for AA league action next season. These are tests for the rebuilding Cornish team but tests that they found answers to - at points.
