Bristol Brunels @ Yeovil Whirlwinds

After their first-round game was postponed last week due to weather, the Whirlwinds were excited to open their account in the 2026 South West and Wales Baseball League Division 5 – Severn. The Bristol Brunels were the first visitors to Bradford Abbas this year. Beautiful sunshine with light winds greeted both teams on the field.

Game 1 got underway and it was the Bristol team who got off to a fast start. It became apparent early on that the Whirlwinds had a lot of rust following the off season. Some outstanding pitching from the Brunels meant Yeovil were only able to make 2 hits in the opening 3 innings. Meanwhile the Brunels were able to max out their runs in the first two innings before Yeovil could restrict them to a single run in the 3^rd to make the score 11-0 in favour of Bristol. The 4^th inning was open and a strong defensive display from Yeovil limited to Bristol to 4 more runs. This had the score at 15-0 with the Whirlwinds having 3 outs left in the game. Despite a really strong batting display from Yeovil including the season’s first Run Batted in by Chrisi Wilangowski, they were only able to score 3 runs before Bristol ended the game. The final score was 15-3.

Despite the lop-sided result there were some positives for Yeovil to take from it. Barnabas Csicso made his pitching debut for the Whirlwinds. He recorded 2 strikeouts amongst his many excellent pitches. The Whirlwinds also generated some momentum both offensively and defensively in the closing stages that they were keen to bring into the days second game.

Game 2 was a much tighter affair. A rejuvenated Whirlwind team re-entered the field. Each inning was tightly contested. The Whirlwinds were led by an excellent pitching performance by Simon Causer. The first inning was blown open by a Jason Tew Home Run to give Yeovil a 4-3 lead. But Tew wasn’t done there. He added a second Inside the Park Home Run in inning 2 to help Yeovil extend the lead to 7-4. Inning 3 showed Yeovil’s strong defence at work. Barnabas Csisco now playing catcher recorded a caught stealing out after a strong throw to second from home before Kris Csicso made an over the head catch in the outfield immediately after. This earned Causer his first no score inning as pitcher.

Inning 4 was another strong Whirlwind performance on both sides of the inning. The Brunel’s were limited to 1 run in the top before the Whirlwinds started to record some hits in the bottom. Patient at bats and good hit placement meant Yeovil got 4 players back home leaving the score at 11-5 in Yeovil’s favour before the open inning.

The Brunel’s mounted a comeback initially getting 3 runs in before Yeovil steadied themselves and brought the game to an end with the final out being a pop out to pitcher Causer. A just end to a pitching display which gave up just 7 hits, 2 strikeouts and an ERA of 7.0.

Yeovil look forward to meeting the Brunel’s in the return fixture next Sunday.

By Robert Martin