Speedy teenage Berwick City Cougar Jake McLardy had a great afternoon with the bat against Port Melbourne on Sunday. By Marc McGowan
THEY may not be able to make the finals, but the Berwick City Cougars have no intention of just playing out time in the Baseball Victoria Division Three season.
A 5-1 beating of fourth-placed Port Melbourne at Cyril Molyneux Reserve on Sunday confirmed the Cougars are still as keen as ever.
The triumph was Berwick City’s seventh for 2007-08 and halted a three-match losing skid.
The reliable Jude Power threw nine brilliant innings and the only run scored off his pitching came courtesy of a Jack Spears fielding error.
His performance complemented a great second inning by the Cougars, where they knocked in four of their five runs for the day.
The other run came in the opening inning when Berwick City playing coach Wayne Porter’s hit sent Luke Hornstra home.
The run-scorers in the second dig were Porter, Davis Long, Jake McLardy and Richard Gyton.
Another positive for the Cougars was the quality team defence on display, which, despite their struggles, has been a constant.
Following the defeat, Port Melbourne is in danger of missing the finals, with top side Springvale awaiting it in the final round this weekend.
Fifth-placed Preston is a game behind, but faces winless Footscray on Saturday.
Porter was pleased to see his young squad collect the points.
“It was pretty good, the game went well,” he said.
“Hitting has let us down most of year, so we want to finish on a good note and we have a game on Thursday (today) and we’ll give that a good shake, too.”
Berwick City’s season wraps up this week with matches against Williamstown at Altona from 8.50pm tonight before it hosts St Kilda in its final fixture of the year on Saturday at 2pm.
The latter game at Cyril Molyneux Reserve has been dubbed Ladies’ Day and a women-only marquee will be erected at the venue.
“There will be a big crowd down there – there will be at least 100 women there for the Ladies’ Day – so there will be a pretty good atmosphere,” Porter said.
“It is the club’s chance to put on a show and make people want to come down.”
Casey councillor Brian Hetherton is throwing the first pitch to start proceedings on the weekend.
