LEGDRAGGERS retained their Sarnian Roofing Slowpitch Open crown after they defeated Mariners on a tiebreak in yesterday’s final at Beau Sejour. In a repeat of last year’s final, the Guernsey team came from behind to force the game into an eighth innings. They went on to defeat the Solent League outfit 16-15.
‘Over the moon,’ said Legdraggers captain Jason Smith after the match.
‘You couldn’t ask for a better final than that. We had a mixture of players with injuries and that, but everyone played out of their skins.
‘I knew we could do it. The first day was great - we won the first two games but yesterday we lost all three games.
‘So to come back and win three games today was great.’
By the sixth innings in the final, the Sarnians had taken a 10-7 lead. But this advantage was wiped out as Mariners’ Adam Pfeil hit a home run deep into right field that saw three runners make it over the home plate.
The visitors proceeded to get another three runs to put them 13-10 ahead going into the seventh. They then failed to add to their tally so it was now up to Legdraggers’ batters to come up with the goods.
They got the bases loaded and a Justine Smith hit saw Gary Machon home and he was followed over the plate by Liz Kerr.
Now two down, a Dave Rihoy hit that was caught, saw Ben Youlton come through and force another innings.
Mariners’ managed to get two more runs before the home side came out to bat. Then Debbie Robinson reached the fourth thanks to a Nikki Jones hit.
Pfeil almost had a triple play when the short stop took a catch then tagged a Guernsey batsman, but his throw to first base was wide. While this unfolded Danny Guilbert ran home to make the score 15-15.
With runners on first and third and just one batter left, the match was beautifully poised and it was a shame that it had to be decided by an individual error as Mariners’ second baseman Kofi Frempong took too long over a throw to first and Jo Bellis made it home to win the title.
‘We knew they would be a hard team to beat,’ said Mariners’ captain Beefy Burgess.
‘I have a lot of respect for them. They come over to our tournament and they have great players. We just wanted to keep up with them and that was our aim today.
‘We’ve had a fantastic time and it’s evolved into a tournament/holiday. It was the same result as last year but we’ll be back next year with bigger bats.’
Article posted on 29th May, 2007 - 12.00am
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