Sunshine Eagles are yet to hit their straps, but are still undefeated in the Baseball Victoria summer league premier 1 first nine competition.
The reigning premiers have been able to find a way in each of their four matches this season, but none of the wins have come easy.
On Saturday, the Eagles came from to beat Cheltenham, 5-3.
Eagles coach Stuart Clayton said they were still finding their feet this season
“We had to work for it and we’ve come from behind in every game,” he said. “We’ve given up runs early and had to work from behind.
“We’re starting to bat well and had a fair few runners on base, but couldn’t get the shot we needed.
“We’re running at about 80 per cent. We’re not flying but we’re pretty comfortable.”
On Saturday, Cheltenham scored early before the Eagles tied the scores in the sixth innings.
Cheltenham took back the lead in the seventh innings before scores were again level heading into the ninth innings.
Clayton said Cheltenham was playing well with their left fielder having a massive impact on the game.
“We got some hits and it sewed it up for us,” he said.
“Jordan [Young] and Devin [Leahy] both got on base and Jamie [Young] whacked it in for a double to get away with the win.”
While many games were affected by the weather, Clayton said they only had a couple of drops of rain and it was pretty good conditions all day.
Clayton said they’ve had some players out early which has meant opportunities for others.
He said they were starting to build some real depth across the top two sides.
Clayton singled out Connor Young as one who had stepped up.
“He was on third base for us and made some outstanding plays late in the game to keep Cheltenham from scoring.
“They get confidence out of it and all the senior guys get a boost out of it.”
The Eagles are one of three teams sitting undefeated after four rounds, along with Geelong and Moorabbin.
Clayton said they would have taken the start any day of the week.
“We’ve got the midweek games coming up in the middle of November,” he said. “We wanted to bank the wins early.”
The Eagles two women’s sides were set to face each other on Saturday after a redraw of the north-west competition.
Having already played each other in round one, the two teams decided to take that result due to some unavailabilities.
