TWO of two of Wangaratta Rangers longest serving players achieved major milestones last Sunday in the third round of North East Baseball. Rob Seymour and Tetsu Kamiyama both played their 350th game for Rangers Orange in their A game against Wodonga Warriors. These two players share the coaching of the Rangers Orange team and all involved in baseball congratulated the pair on their achievements. Warriors were first to bat and Rangers pitcher, Tanner Godenzi had thrown just seven pitches and Warriors had lost their first three batters. Rangers had seven batters face the plate but brought in two runs. Neither team scored in the second innings. Warriors lost their first batter to a fly ball catch at first base then settled to get some safe hits and bring in one run before side away. Rangers added another two runs in their turn at bat to lead four runs to one at the top of the fourth dig. Warriors shut down Rangers from adding runs for the next two innings and with two runs down and two runs in with loaded bases it looked like a Warriors comeback, but not to be, their next batter was struck out for side away. Rangers came back bringing another two runs in their next bat and held Warriors out to win six runs to three. Rob Seymour was best with the bat for Rangers Orange batting 1000 having four safe hits from four plate appearances while Jack Niewerth was the only Warrior to have two safe hits. In the C Grade game, Rangers after winning their first game last week could only get one runner on base in their first two turns at bat, while Warriors batted well to score six runs in their first innings. Both sides scored two runs in the third with Josh Wells from Rangers hitting a three baser to deep centre field. Rangers added one more run in their last turn at bat while Warriors put one seven to run out winning 15 runs to Rangers three. Tracy Loyst made the play of the day for Rangers when she took a fly ball catch at third base then touched her base to catch the runner off base for a double play. Warriors were far too good on the day in the Under 15s game against the younger Rangers/Benalla United team. The United team only see each other when they play and are improving each week and although beaten, they never give up trying and this shows in their improvement. In the Under 12s game, the same situation is in the United team. The coach of each team pitches the ball to their own batters, which is a significant help for their batting. United and Warriors played a great game with both teams scoring runs and were incredibly good in their fielding. Each team played four innings and the game ended in a draw with 16 runs each. Wangaratta’s other A grade team, Rangers Black played Albury Bears Gold at Targoora Park, the only game played there on Sunday. Bears batted first but could only score one run in their first turn at bat, then Rangers Black got their first two batters on base safely and lost their third batter after being struck out forcing fielding errors from Bears from some good base running scoring five runs for the dig. Neither side scored in their next innings, then they both added one run each in the third. Neither side got a runner on going three up, three down. Bears were able to add one more run in their last dig, then Rangers added another four to their score ending the game winning 10 runs to Bears three. This Sunday’s games are: Porepunkah Panthers at home to Rangers Black. Albury Bears Green play Wodonga Warriors at Springdale. Rangers Orange play home to Bears Gold. United have the bye in both juniors and Benalla have the bye in the B Grade.
