With the closure of Thomas Dalton Park at Fairy Meadow, The Northern Pirates 2nd grade side travelled to Ison Park Baseball field to take on the Shoalhaven Mariners on Saturday morning. The Mariners have had the wood on the Pirates in recent memory, but the two sides played out a draw in their last meeting.
In first inning action The Mariners were up to bat first, and were a threat with 2 on and 2 out, but were retired with no score.
In reply The Pirates put bat on ball forcing Mariners fielding errors and were able to score their first run by way of a wild pitch from Mariners Hurler Dan Kelly.
Dominate pitching kept both sides scoreless through the second inning, bringing Mariners up to bat at top of the 3rd. Some good hitting from the top of the line-up allowing Mariners to tie the game up at one a piece.
At the bottom of the 3rd The Pirates had some good hitting of their own from the top of their line-up. Corey Rower crossing to take the lead back before the side was retired.
The lead wouldn’t last long for The Pirates as former Pirate Kieran Harris homered over the fence in right field for Mariners. Marcus Atkinson also crossed putting The Mariners into the lead for the first time in the game.
Top of the 4th inning now and Mariners pitcher Dan Kelly would go on to shutout The Pirates through the next 4 innings facing just one more than the minimum.
Mariners hitters weren’t done for the day adding 2 additional runs, one in the 5th and one in the 6th inning, taking the final score to 5-2 a good win for Mariners.
Kelly pitched well going 7 innings throwing 103 pitches, 69 for strikes, with 4 strikeouts, giving up just 3 hits and 4 walks.
Mariners stand out hit of the day going to Kieran Harris for his Home run, Kai Meuronen had the only 2 base hit of the day with singles going to Marcus Atkinson (2), Stuart Raymond, Dan Kelly, Michael Vine, Sam De Meyer and Gabe Tate.
Mariners retain their spot on top of the ladder and will face the second placed Cardinals next week at Hector Harvey field Dapto.
Photos by: Tracy Provest