Home town team claims gold

Ronda Edwards claims monthly medal

Another successful Masters carnival at Blue Lake Sports Park diamonds

The 16th Annual Mount Gambier Baseball Masters is done and dusted. Apart from a small amount of light drizzle fine weather welcomed the five visiting and three local teams to Blue Lake Sports Park for two and a half days with each team playing five games including finals.

Away teams included Adelaide Aces, Northern Aces Blue and Grey, Playford City and Diamond Dogs. Local team were Centrals and two teams from the Mount Gambier Legends who were hosts of the carnival.

The eight teams were divided into two divisions each playing three round robin games before running into a finals series of matches.

Two games were played on Friday night in front of a nice crowd who turned up to register for participation. Saturday was full on with games commencing at 9am.

Ten games were played on two diamonds including for the first time with the Mount Gambier Softball Association granting permission to use one of their diamonds.

The last two games of the day were semi- inals in each division to decide who were going straight to the gold medal playoff.

Placings in each division after the round robin were Division 1 Northern Aces Blue, Adelaide Aces, Diamond Dogs and Legends B. Division 2 saw Centrals on top followed by Northern Aces Grey Playford and Legends A. In Division 2 Central triumphed over Legends A while Northern Aces Blue succeeded over Legends B.

An earlier start on Sunday morning saw teams from both divisions playing for the right to contest for their respective gold medals. In Division 1 Adelaide Aces advanced with a one run win over Diamond Dogs who were relegated to the bronze medal playoff against Legends B.

Northern Aces advanced to the final against Centrals in Division after defeating Playford who would play Legends A for bronze.

In the bronze medallion playoffs in Division 1 Legends B defeated Diamond Dogs 10 runs to o while in Division 2 Legends A prevailed over Playford 12-3.

The finals battling for gold and silver were played on Diamond 1 in front of very good crowds with Division 2 kicking off first.

Central had too much fire power in the batting box for Northern Aces Grey eventually defeating them in the 90 minute game 11 runs to 1. The Division 1 game went the same way with Northern Aces Blue winning 14 runs to 1 to take gold.

At the presentations held immediately after the last game, Mount Gambier Legends president

Peter Walter thanked all those in attendance for their presence and for supporting the Annual Carnival.

He thanked all those who had travelled and wished them a safe journey home. Mr Walter also thanked all who had umpired and scored over the weekend and the many volunteers who had spent time in the canteen, bar and ground maintenance.

He mentioned that it was impossible to hold such an extremely successful carnival without the efforts of club members and volunteers.

He also thanked the tournament’s sponsors, in particular the City of Mount Gambier who have been involved from day one 17 years ago as has the club’s other sponsors in Bakers Delight, She’s Apples Market, Swallow Drive Meat Supply, The South Eastern, Collins Court Butcher, Mount Gambier Frozen Foods, Farmers Union Iced Coffee and Limestone Coast Timber Floors.

DIVISION TWO WINNERS: (Above main) Gold medal winning Central team Back: Rob Staples, Jason Rice, Leigh Kent, Steve Kuhl, Ric Jordan, Ben Green, Dave Delaland, Brett Stephenson & (front) Dave Harris, Alan Crouch, Bill Stephenson, Brenton lockwood, Dean Cutting & Geoff Crouch

MASTERS ACTION: (Top row fom left) Daniel Long, Legends B, lets go a fast ball against Adelaide Aces; Nathan Tana, Legends B, looks to hit safely & Ric Jordan, Centrale, Stretches far enough to put out the Northern Aces Grey batter and (bottom row from left) Zac Ratcliffe, Legends B, about to unleash on a big fat pitch; Geoff Crouch, Centrals, stretches to hit a curve ball in the gold medal game against and Ken Rowe, Legends B unleashes on a fast pitch

MASTERS RESULTS:

FRIDAY:

Legends A 7 d Playford 2

Northern Aces Blue 12 d

Legends B 0

SATURDAY:

Adelaide Aces 2 d Diamond

Dogs 1

Central 14 d Northern Aces

Grey 4

Adelaide Aces 10 d Diamond

Dogs 7