By Tara Murray
The Sunshine Eagles strong run of form continued into the opening round of Baseball Victoria summer league premier 1st nine finals on the weekend.
The Eagles, who finished the regular season in second spot, were in action on Saturday against Malvern in a qualifying final at Sunshine.
After taking a while to get into the game, the Eagles were able to put out a dominant display on the way to a 9-3 win.
Coach Stuart Clayton said they were pretty happy with the performance.
“It was a very good win by the boys,” he said. “It was a tight game early on before we were able to get on top in the sixth innings and were able to run away with it in the end which was really good.”
Clayton said the game changed when Malvern changed its pitcher.
The Eagles had hit the front by that stage, but totally took control of the game from that point on as they found the new pitcher to their liking.
Clayton said as you get used to a pitcher on the day it makes it easier to get a look at them which is when a lot of sides then choose to change pitchers.
“We’d had a lot of runners on base, but we couldn’t get those lucky hits to get them home,” he said.
“They changed the pitcher and we were able to get a couple of clutch hits. We have some really good pitching depth, but other clubs don’t have that pitching group on them.”
The Eagles now face Upwey Ftg, which finished on spot behind the Eagles in third.
Upwey beat Williamstown 10-0 in its final on Saturday.
All eight teams progress into the second round of finals as part of the new structure in place this season, no matter the results in the opening round. Two sides will be knocked out on Tuesday night.
“You have to lose two finals to be kicked out,” Clayton said. “We play Upwey and the two losers from our first matches play off and whoever loses is out.
“It’s like the American college format.”
Sunshine and Upwey will be in action on Tuesday night before preliminary finals on Saturday.
The final will be played at Surrey Park Arthur Field. Clayton said they had been hoping that the match would have been held at the Melbourne Ballpark.
