By ADEM SARICAOGLU
AN outstanding performance with both bat and ball from Travis Bass helped Newport score an easy 10-0 road win over Sunshine in Division One baseball on Saturday.
On the mound, Bass limited Sunshine to a scoreless two hits for the day, while he also managed to pick up three hits of his own on the plate – leading his Rams to an impressive mercy rule victory.
After going down 5-3 to Doncaster four days earlier, Newport coach Grant Weir said it was pleasing to see his Rams bounce back in such strong fashion, albeit against the struggling Eagles.
“They are struggling but their American pitcher (Chris Prokupek) has been pretty decent and the wind was blowing in, so it was a hard hitting day and to score 10 runs in seven innings was a really good effort,” Weir said.
“It was really important because we just need to keep picking up those wins and we can still mathematically make finals.”
Newport deliberately targeted Prokupek throughout the day – forcing him out of the game by the fifth inning.
“Our plan was to make sure that he threw a lot of pitches because we know he’s been doing a lot of work and we wanted to get him out of the attack, which we did in the fifth inning,” Weir explained.
“We made him throw a lot of pitches in the first five innings and then it opened up from there.
“He’s had a long season and done a lot of work for them so that was a good result, and then we went forward after that.
“To score 10 runs on that day was a really good effort.”
With Essendon and Geelong both dominating Conference Two, the Rams will need a little bit of luck to get to the post-season, which will begin in early March.
Newport will again face Sunshine at the Altona Ballpark tonight (Tuesday) before hosting Preston on Sunday afternoon.
