Simon stars as Illawarra win Country title

Illawarra pitcher Jamie Simon. Pic is called Simon

FRANK BOOTH

THE ILLAWARRA Baseball League Men’s representative team won the New South Wales Country Championships at Tamworth on Monday.

Illawarra scored an 8-6 win over defending champions Central Coast.

The win is the eleventh by Illawarra since the Championships began in 1948.

It is also their second win in three years, a feat performed by Illawarra on four previous occasions.

Three were in the 1950s and the other consecutive wins in 1980-81.

Illawarra outhit Central Coast 10-8 in the nine innings final with errors being Illawarra 4, Central Coast 5.

Central Coast’s errors proved costly in the final analysis with a total of seven unearned runs being conceded to Illawarra.

Central Coast was 4-2 ahead after three innings and was looking likely winners when they scored two more runs in the sixth.

However, a costly bottom of the sixth saw Illawarra score six runs, five of which were unearned. Neither team added to the score in the last three innings.

Illawarra’s Jamie Simon came away as the winning pitcher, allowing seven hits and four earned runs with seven strikeouts in 5.2 innings.

Australian Provincial representative pitcher Chris Morgan picked up a save, pitching 3.1 innings in relief and allowing no earned runs on four hits.

Offensively Mitchell Thompson was the standout, batting 3 from 4 with 2 RBI’s.

Lee Vlasoff and Michael Kuit batted 2 from 4 with one RBI each. Kaine Abbott also batted 2 from 4.

“This was a rewarding win for the team that has played extremely well over the arduous schedule of seven times two-and-one-quarter-hours games in a little over two days,” head coach Keith Ward said.

“Jamie (Simon) showed he is still one of the best around after two decades at the top and Chris (Morgan) excelled in relief.

“Overall we had a great pitching roster that lost just one game in the seven played.

“The batters did their job, headed by Mitch Thompson’s fine effort with good support throughout the order.”

In the Women’s division Illawarra failed to make the final for the first time since the women’s it started four years ago.