Warriors find form against Wildcats

A gruelling one sided affair developed in Riverland baseball on Sunday afternoon. Coming off a hard fought victory against Renmark, The Berri Warriors were again determined to re-establish themselves as serious grand final contenders against the Loxton Wildcats.
Loxton would come out ready to fire against the reigning premiers, but with their key starting pitcher absent from the line up the task was always set before them.
With Berri’s first at bat leadoff batter Steven Scott was walked at his first appearance at the plate for Berri and was quickly followed up with safe hits to Brenton Halupka, Brad Monaghan, Andrew Law and Ashley Rogers giving Berri their best start to a game with a commanding 4-0 lead before the side was retired.
Andrew Law continued his great form from the previous week starting on the mound for Berri, and with two strike outs and a runner at first, Berri’s Catcher Brenton Halupka was able to cease a stolen base attempt and throw out the Loxton Runner to retire the side.
Heading into the top of the second Law showed his coach why he’s fast becoming a commanding pitcher inside Riverland Baseball with three pitches for three quick routine outs and retiring Loxton sending them into the field again.
Loxton Pitcher Carl Henning was in for a long day on the plate as Berri’s bats woke up in the top of the third; Steven Scott picked his second walk for the day and after successfully stealing second base to be in scoring position, saw Paul Reid hit a triple to left field to score Scott. Peter Moritz was next and scored Paul Reid before Phillip Goldspink Doubled to score Moritz straight after. the side was then retired with Goldspink left stranded on base.
Berri was in a commanding position with Loxton straining to get runners on before Steven Scott showed the wildcats that Berri’s defence was as strong as their offence pulling off an unassisted double play to start the third innings. Andrew Law kept his side going forward striking out his fourth batter of the day to send Berri into bat in the Fourth.
The wildcats headaches continued as Berri coach Nick Kuhn’s faith in Halupka was rewarded when he smashed a long bomb homerun over the left field fence for a two run blast igniting the side and the spectators in classic baseball fashion, Berri kept the batting alive scoring twice more before Loxton was finally able to retire the side and try and stop Berri’s dominance.
However Loxton never recovered as their bats again fell silent with routine outs saw Loxton retired and the game called with Berri receiving the 14-0 victory.
Coach Nick Kuhn was pleased with his team’s performance but vowed “much more work had to be done before finals time”.