A rusty Sunshine Eagles were still able to get the job done on Saturday in the Baseball Victoria summer league premier 1 first nine competition.
The Eagles past two games had been washed out, meaning it had been two weeks between games.
Eagles coach Stuart Clayton said you could tell that the group wasn’t at their best.
“Saturday and Tuesday were washed out and we had a little bit of a break,” he said.
“It was funny as it felt like we’d had a month off.
“We struggled with the timing of batting and everything. You would think two days off would refresh the body for everyone, but we had to start again.”
The Eagles were able to come away with an 8-1 win against Upwey FTG.
Clayton said it wasn’t the best performance but getting a win like that against Upwey was a really pleasing result.
“We scored all but one of the runs in the third innings,” he said. “We were flat after that.
“Everyone was hyped up and we got a couple of hits and were able to get away seven runs.
“They changed their pitcher who was a bit slower and harder to hit.
“We had one big innings and then everyone tried to hit it too hard.”
Clayton said the slower pitching was something they had to adapt to as other sides would try that against them.
He said they would hopefully build on that this week.
The Eagles sit atop the table after seven rounds, with six wins from as many matches.
They are the only undefeated side.
Sunshine is set for two matches again this week, with a midweek match against Fitzroy on Tuesday night and then a weekend match against Newport Rams on Saturday.
Clayton said this was the time of year that always challenged sides.
“It will keep us on our toes with our pitching depth,” he said.
“The Young boys are currently holding it up for us.
“Our seconds had a good win yesterday [Saturday. There’s guys there who are going OK in the seconds that might get an opportunity for an innings in the firsts the next couple of weeks.
‘Hopefully we keep going the way we’re going.”
In the women’s regional north-west competition, Sunshine Blues suffered its first loss of the season on Saturday, losing to Geelong, 13-12.
Meanwhile, Sunshine White lost to Newport Rams 14-6 in their match.
It’s a big couple of weeks coming up for the Eagles with the official opening of their inside tunnel being opened on 29 November.
Clayton said a lot of work had been put in over two and half years to get this up and it was an amazing facility.
