Northants Centurions baseball team claimed a first win of the season as they secured a double-header win at Cambridge Royals on Sunday.
Sadly, the day was completely overshadowed by the death of a Cambridge Cats American Football player who suffered a heart attack on the adjacent field. This puts wins, losses and injuries into some perspective.
For Centurions, their first game saw young Cambridge left hander Cameron Doncaster take the mound for the Royals, but Northants bats were on fire, and a five run first inning set the tone for how the day would play out.
After the Centurions had hit, with the inning over once five runs are scored, Gareth Beeby was charged with pitching duties and the Royals hitters were having a very different experience, with no runs scoring.
This pattern continued, and after three innings, Northants were 11-0 up.
Centurions continued to score heavily, with Beeby leading the way with bat as well as ball, getting on base and scoring on all six plate appearances, and the game finished 24-5 to Centurions.
Cambridge rang the changes for game two, bringing in more young players.
Game two saw two new pitchers, Josh Clegg on the mound for Cambridge and Nick Russell for Northants.
Northants scored steadily and Russell’s pitching and some sterling fielding on the infield kept Northants ticking over as they raced into a 6-1 lead after three innings.
The power hitting of Allister Viljoen, Stefan Meyern and Ross Barnes was being complemented by the searing pace on the basepaths of Jake Mawunga.
Centurions continued to dominate, and they ended up 11-2 winners.