Guild Lions emerged victorious in a close battle against Bellarine Bears, 11 to 9, at the Geelong Baseball Centre, Waurn Ponds in a mid-season battle.
Guild 11 d Bellarine 9.
Despite scoring the first run, the Lions for the second successive week surrendered an early lead – this time by conceding two unearned in the second and a three spot in the third as Lewis Weldon flexed some offensive muscle with a three-run bomb (home run over the left field fence) for the Bears.
Drawing to within a run after four, Guild paid for costly free passes (walks by the pitcher) in the fifth, when reliever Jarryd Wood struggled with control and handed the pill to brother James to stem the flow and hold the Bellarine lead to four – surely enough, the pundits would have reckoned, with old hands in Simon Murry and Josh Crotty looking to close out the game.
Not so, however, as the Lions took their lead from a booming triple by starting pitcher Andy Radevski in the bottom of five – a blow that inspired a six-run assault delivered by a walk, a sacrifice and six timely hits that did serious damage to the Murry line and handed Guild a match-winning break protected by the elder Wood with a clean last inning.
Delivering the offence for Bellarine, Weldon (home run and three RBIs), Matt Sage (two hits and three RBIs) and Lachlan Stott (two and three) were standouts for Bellarine, while the Lions spread the hitting spoils between nine players – the most prominent of those being Jordan Lekkas (two hits and three RBIs late in the game), James Wood (two and two), Lee Harty (one and two), Ryan Stewart (two and one) and Liam Spence (three hits).
Bellarine 0 2 3 0 4 0 (9) 1 error
Guild 1 0 3 1 6 x (11) 2 errors
Hits
Bellarine: M. Sage 2, L. Stott 2, L. Medew, L. Weldon (home run)
Guild: L. Spence 3, James Wood 2, R. Stewart 2, J. Lekkas 2, T. Kilfoyle, L. Harty, J. Renouf, A. Radevski, Jarryd Wood
RBIs
Bellarine: L. Weldon 3, M. Sage 3, L. Stott 3
Guild: J. Lekkas 3, James Wood 2, L. Harty 2, T. Kilfoyle, R. Stewart, Jarryd Wood
Pitching
Bellarine: S. Murry 4.1 inn, 13 H, 1 K, 3 BB, 3 HPB, 10 ER
J.Crotty 0.2 inn, 1 H, 1 K, 0 BB, 0 HPB, 0 ER
Guild: A. Radevski 4 inn, 4 H, 4 Ks, 1 BB, 0 HPB, 3 ER
Jarryd Wood 0 inn, 0 H, 0 K, 3 BB, 0 HPB, 2 ER
James Wood 2 inn, 2 H, 1 K, 0 BB, 0 HPB, 2 ER
– courtesy of Geelong Baseball Association
