On another sunny, Somerset Sunday the Yeovil Whirlwinds Baseball Club made their shortest away trip of the season to play Wellington Khaki Sox in the West Country Baseball League. In what proved to be a tight contest, Yeovil came up short again, losing their third game in a row.
Needing to make a couple of changes due to player availability, the Whirlwinds added their fourth debutant of the season to their line-up and bolstered their numbers with a very gratefully received loanee from their opponents.
Fairly free scoring early innings saw the two teams tied after the first inning having scored three runs each. This became a slight lead for Wellington after the 2nd inning where they again scored three runs to Yeovil’s two.
With the pitchers and fielding units now warmed up, this early flurry of runs somewhat dried up over the remaining innings, neither side being able to score more than one run in an inning for most of the rest of the game.
During inning 7, however, Wellington bucked that trend and struck the decisive blow. Yeovil had managed to score another solitary run to tie the game up, 8 runs apiece in their 7th inning at bat. Wellington dug deep, found some gaps in the field, ran hard and scored 5 runs to open up the first meaningful gap between the teams’ scores.
In inning 8, Yeovil continued to battle and managed to advance a runner to third base but ultimately failed to score. A change at pitcher for the travelling side first produced a strike out before the Khaki Sox got a runner on base. Then came the moment of the match from the Whirlwinds’ point of view. Barni Csicso, in his first ever game, took an excellently judged catch from a hit that was threatening the home run fence, then relayed the ball to second base to secure another out with the runner having not “tagged up”. This ended the inning, ensuring the lead stayed at only 5 runs but also earning Barni a unanimous vote for the team’s “Play of the Day”.
Sadly, the team high that that play had generated could not spur on the Whirlwinds enough, failing to score in inning 9 and so the score ended 13 runs to 8 in favour of Wellington.
Another defeat but another fantastic team effort. Particular shout outs to Kirk Shepherd for switching allegiance for the day and helping us out, to Jordan Rodger who, due to a teammate’s injury, had to step in at second base having never trained there previously and obviously to Barni for a great debut. Also a thank you to Neale Raleigh, umpire for the day but also a key figure in the history of both clubs, who presented Barni with the match ball as a memento of the day!
If you’re interested in baseball and want to give it a go or are just looking for a new and different hobby then reach out to Yeovil Whirlwinds via Facebook or Instagram!
By Chris Spurway
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