Sunshine remains winless in division one of Baseball Victoria’s Summer League after an 8-5 loss to Doncaster on Saturday.
Playing away, Sunshine was no match for the home side early, with the Dragons taking an unassailable 8-1 lead in the sixth inning.
Sunshine fought back to score the last four runs of the match, which went to nine innings, but couldn’t reel in hard-hitting Doncaster.
New Sunshine coach Earl Byrne said the season was a “work in progress”.
“Doncaster hit the ball really well and we just couldn’t get the job done,” he said. “They made all the right plays and once they got out to that 8-1 lead we just couldn’t catch them. We eked out another four runs, but it was pretty disappointing. But the boys didn’t give up and kept saying, ‘We can get back in this, we can do it’.”
Byrne pointed out that the Eagles had been competitive in four of their five games so far, losing 9-4 to Preston, 5-4 against Geelong and 5-0 against Newport.
A 23-6 hammering by unbeaten Essendon has been the exception.
“We’ve been a bit unlucky at times,” Byrne said. “But apart from the Essendon game we’ve been in them. It’s a work in progress and we’ll keep plugging away.”
Sunshine is away to Blackburn this Sunday.
