Cougars’ Power rules the plate

By Marc McGowan
JUDE Power’s extraordinary pitching performance on Sunday has helped the Berwick City Cougars move into a tie for fourth place in Baseball Victoria’s division-three competition.
Power threw 202 pitches over 10 innings to almost single-handedly carry the Cougars to their second triumph of the season – a 7-6 victory over Preston at Cyril Molyneux Reserve.
Shaun Fahy’s sore throwing arm stopped him from relieving Power, as scheduled, in the sixth inning.
Jake McLardy, who had three hits for the day, knocked Paul Quinn in to give Berwick City the opening run of the match in the second inning.
But the Cougars trailed for much of the contest and faced a 6-3 deficit at the bottom of the ninth inning, after fielding errors allowed the Pirates to score four times in the fourth.
The hosts’ hitters subsequently produced the three runs required, with teenager Aaron Warner manufacturing the tying score.
Playing coach Wayne Porter had the chance to win the game for Berwick City but he holed out.
Power prevented Preston from scoring in its trip to the plate in the 10th, ending the innings with a spectacular throw to first base for the final out.
He then almost smacked a home run, but had to settle for a double in the 10th.
The Cougars needed a hero and Quinn was the man, smashing the ball through the infield to finally score the winning run as the clock ticked past 7pm.
Porter was confident before the outing that his players could respond to the previous weekend’s thrashing against Springvale.
“When you’re a bit older and more experienced (as I am) you don’t get as anxious and just let things unfold,” he said.
“You show faith in the people around you and it pays off.”
Porter said he was “embarrassed” about Power’s pitch count, but hailed his number-one hurler’s performance as the best he had been involved with.
“I asked Jude how he was going after the eighth, and he just said ‘I love this stuff’,” Porter said.
“He came out throwing harder in the ninth than he did in the first.
“I said to the guys late in the game that, if anyone deserved a game to be won for them, it’s this bloke here (Power).”
Porter also tipped 14-year-old slugger Adam Silver, a junior state representative, to make his division-three debut in the coming weeks.
Berwick City locks horns with Williamstown at 8.50pm tonight (Thursday) at Melbourne Ball Park before returning to Cyril Molyneux Reserve at 3.30pm on Sunday to take on Footscray.