Sunshine Eagles coach Stuart Clayton has coached and played baseball for a long time, but can’t remember a performance like the one the Eagles put out on Tuesday night.
Playing in the top competition in Victoria, the summer league premier league, the Eagles beat Berwick 23-1 in their mid week fixture.
Clayton said it was a night where everything went their way.
“Everything we hit was on the nose,” he said. “I haven’t seen that in the top level in Victoria ever.
“I said to the boys I’ve never won by 22 runs in all my years of playing.
“After the game I said had we had another couple of those hits on Sunday that would have won us the game and put us in contention again.”
Clayton said they had a number of standouts with everyone swinging the bat really well.
Jordan Young and Griffin Weir both scored home runs, while Joshua Byrne had four hits and Deacon McPhail had three hits each.
“Everyone did their job last [Tuesday] night,” Clayton said. “Everything was being hit into the gaps.”
The win was the Eagles 11th of the season. The side was sitting in sixth spot two and half games outside the top four before the weekend’s matches, which were after deadline.
Clayton knows they have a task ahead of them if they are to play finals.
“We might have already burnt ourselves,” he said. “The competition is pretty tight.
“We’ve had a number of one run ball games and been on the losing end. There’s still six games to go, anything can happen.”
While the Eagles were hoping to build confidence from the big win, the tests didn’t get any bigger on Sunday, after deadline, when they faced ladder leaders Waverley.
Clayton said it would be a good test for them especially on the road.
“They are the top side and we’ve got to beat them if we want to play finals,” he said. “We pretty much have to win the rest of our games now.”
Clayton said while finals was still the goal they had been happy with how the season had panned out so far.
“We are a really young side and primed for the next couple of years,” he said. “We’ve been without a import this year.
“The boys are really happy, but you always want to be at the top end.”
The side’s next match is Saturday at home against the Williamstown Wolves.
Tara Murray
