Cougars sneaked past Lions

By Gavin Staindl
THE Berwick City Cougars left their rally late but eventually sneaked past the Springvale Lions 4-3 last Sunday at the Wearne Reserve in Springvale.
After trailing for most of the game, the Cougars set up the win with a three-run eighth-inning. Led by playing coach, Wayne Porter and with the help of Adam Silva and Martin Kennedy, the Cougars managed to claw back from a 1-3 deficit.
Nineteen-year-old Martin Kennedy put the ghosts of last season behind him as he threw for six innings and gave away only two runs.
His performance was a significant improvement on last season when he was belted around the park by the Lions offence and recorded the loss in an 18-1 demolition.
On Sunday, Kennedy missed out on recording a win, but Porter definitely noted Kennedy’s performance as vital for the team.
Brad Hubbard came in as reliever and picked up from Kennedy by throwing three innings for one run and finished with the win.
Porter recognised the importance of good pitching at the start of the season and according to Porter, so far the pitching efforts have been solid.
The Cougars struggled early, with patchy pitching and stranding batters on base, but Porter was impressed at the persistence of his team.
“We pride ourselves on our ability to grind out games and we managed to do that again.”
“We left a few runners on (base) early and couldn’t get them around, so I wasn’t happy with that. But we got out of some big jams and I’m happy with our persistence. No one took a backward step,” Porter said.
The Cougars will now face the Fitzroy Lions and will need to be at their very best if they want to match it with the in-form Lions.
“We expect to be competitive every game and if we can do that, then who knows. If you can get a couple of hits in a row then anything is possible,” Porter said.
Meanwhile, the newly combined Berwick/Springvale combination continues to dominate Division 1, this time beating Port Melbourne 13-3 at Cyril Molyneux Reserve in Berwick.
After unleashing a powerful offensive game last week against Waverley, Berwick/Springvale tore through Port Melbourne, while defensively they were again superb.