West Cardinals are coming off a 10-6 win over Dapto Chiefs last Saturday  and beat Berkeley  Eagles 8-5 in the elimination final the previous week.

 Pirates have not played in the semi-finals after advancing straight to te grand final as minor premiers following the washout of their major semi against Chiefs.

 Despite  not playing for three weeks, Pirates smashed the ball around in their previous three games, hammering 30 runs against Mariners in the final round, plus 15 runs against Eagles the previous week and beat Cardinals 16-6 in round 17.

Cardinals are Illawarra’s most successful club with 29 first grade premiership including their last title in 2013.

  Skipper Josh Dean is predicting a high-scoring decider against Pirates.

‘‘I think you’ll need to score plenty of runs to win,’’ he said.

 ‘‘Both teams like to be aggressive and have some offensive weapons. We’ve hit the ball pretty well lately and it looks like being a  high-scoring decider.’’

 And in a welcome relief from the traditional grand final mind games, Dean confirmed Scott Sartori would be Cards’ starting pitcher, with veteran Mick Talty in relief.

 Pirates player-coach Brad Drain confirmed last season’s grand final MVP Brenden Lower  would start on the hill for ‘Bucs. 

Lower hasn’t pitched in the Illawarra comp since the 30-2 drubbing of Mariners in the penultimate round a month ago.

 ‘‘He’s our ace and we all know what he did last year in the finals. We’re looking for Brenden to lead the way,’’ said Drain, who will likely play first base, with skipper Andrew Clifford the designated hitter.

 ‘‘We know how great it was to break a long drought last season and it’d be an exceptional effort to go back to back.’’

  Pirates beat Cards 5-4 in round six and won 16-6 six weeks ago, while their first clash was a 2-2 draw. Cards inflicted Pirates only loss of the campaign with a 15-10 win in round 12.

   Twelve months ago Pirates won their first top grade title since 1997, plus took out the second grade, third  grade and fourth grade premierships.

 In Saturday’s  second grade grand final, minor premiers Cards face  second-placed Pirates. 

Pirates are minor premiers in third grade and face a confident Cards, who finished second and eliminated  Eagles in last Saturday’s  preliminary final.