The Northern Pirates celebrated their annual Greybeards Day on Saturday by officially inducting two new members to their Hall of Fame.
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Long-time stalwart Dianne Clifford was the club's first female inductee while former club president Alistair Michaelis was also welcomed to the now 12-member group.
Straight after the ring presentation, first-placed Berkeley Eagles had to earn their win all the way against third placed Northern Pirates in very testing conditions at Dalton Park.
Eagles controlled the game early on, scoring 4 runs over the first four innings as their starter Blake Barnard shut out Pirates until the sixth. The Bucs then rallied with four runs to draw level after Dylan Rower, Asa Schuster, James Baker and Corey Rower all hit singles to get them back into the match. An inning later they took the lead when Dylan Rower led the seventh with a hit that was scored on by Cuthbertson's fielder's choice.
A pitching change saw Eagles turn to their Australian representative Tim Atherton to take the mound that saw him strike out four for no runs and just one hit. His teammates were then very patient to force a couple of Pirates' errors, scoring three runs at the top of the ninth to snatch the win, 7-5.
At Cringila Park, Dapto Chiefs had the better of hosts Wollongong Cardinals going into the fourth innings 3-nil up. The wheels however fell off after Cardinals scored seven unanswered runs punctuated by a rare grand slam (four-run home run) from Nathan Grogan who cleared the left field fence. A further six runs from Cards in the fifth innings iced the game in what were similarly freezing conditions.
Chiefs' Ben Garvey was the best of the hitters going 3/3 while four Cardinals batters had two hits for the match. Sensibly the umpires called the game after six innings with Cards taking the points, 13-4. The final regular season round next week will see Chiefs host Pirates at Hector Harvey Park while Cardinals play at Berkeley in a dress rehearsal for the following week's major semi-final. First pitch from 2pm.
ILLAWARRA BASEBALL
First grade: Berkeley Eagles 7r, 8h, 2e d Northern Pirates 5r, 10h, 4e; Wollongong Cardinals 13r, 10h, 0e d Dapto Chiefs 4r, 11h, 1e.
Second grade: Shoalhaven Mariners 10 d Eagles A 6, Cardinals 6 d Dapto Panthers 4; Pirates 16 d Eagles B 4.
Fourth grade: Cardinals A 9 d Pirates 7
Fifth grade: Cardinals A 28 d Pirates 1; Cardinals B 16 d Shellharbour Warriors 0, Mariners 7 d Panthers 6.
Sixth grade: Dapto Chiefs 18, Pirates 5, Warriors 17 d Cardinals 8, Panthers 19 d Mariners 11.
