Sunshine’s Shannon Hornstra slides into base. 73334 Picture: DAMIAN VISENTINI
BY MICHAEL ESPOSITO
Sunshine’s Division 2 men’s baseball side has kept in the finals mix with a crucial and convincing 6-0 defeat of Newport in round 10 of the Summer League on Saturday.
The Eagles share third spot with St Kilda and Sandringham with six wins and three losses in what is a remarkable close competition. Newport, which sits eighth, has six wins and four losses.
“It was a really big win for us,” Sunshine coach Shaun Moore said. “We really want to jump the pack now and cement a spot in the four.
Sunshine was well served by pitcher Rory Meddick, who threw the whole game and didn’t falter.
“He killed it, he had a fantastic outing,” Moore said. “He’s been solid for us all year at the moment. He’s really not putting a foot wrong and he’s really going at the hitters. He’s just hard to hit at the moment.”
Moore said his side’s fielders have allowed Meddick to be aggressive on the mound.
“Our defence is pretty strong. To have that behind him as well, it really gives your pitcher a lot of confidence to go at the hitters, because you know you’ve got the defence to run the balls down and make the outs.”
Moore said Shannon Hornstra, Chad Galloway and Scott Moore were among Sunshine’s best hitters.
“Everyone got a hit, it was a really good performance.”
Sunshine will take on 12th placed Chelsea on Thursday and 10th placed Moorabin on Saturday, before coming up against top team Mulgrave on 24 November.
“We really want to win those next two, and go up against Mulgrave, and hopefully bring them back down,” Moore said.
“We’re back to where we actually should be. There’s no doubt we should play finals, but in saying that you’ve got to do the job first.”
