The North Eastern Baseball Association wound up their season on the weekend, holding their vote count on Friday night then on Sunday the grand finals of all three senior grades.
In the C grade game, Albury Bears played Wodonga Warriors in the first game of the day under the threat of rain.
Bears batted first and got a run on the board before they lost their third out.
Experienced pitcher Allan van Breda started on the mound for Bears and pitched well for the first two innings with his style of pitching helping them to limit Warrior’s chance of safe hits in the start of the game.
Van Breda being Bears only pitcher to pitch in the grand final was a benefit to the Warriors for as the game went on, they slowly brought in runs and by the end of the game, Wodonga Warriors ended up winning by three runs.
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Albury Bears played Wangaratta Rangers Black In both the B and A grade games.
Tanner Godenzi was on the mound for Rangers Black pitching to Josh Wells in the B grade game.
Godenzi’s speed was a big part of his game, but when the Bears players did get bat to ball, their hits mostly went to the outfield, and this slowly brought in runs.
While Rangers were kept scoreless in their first two turns at bat, they were getting runners on base but were left there when they lost their third out.
Rain was threatening and at the top of the third innings, Bears brought in another two quick runs in their turn at bat to hold a three-run lead with Rangers yet to bat.
Rangers’ experienced players were the first up to bat and with the pressure of the clouds above and the fact that they were reigning premiers brought out the best in their batting.
Rangers were able to come up with the goods to bring in five runs for the dig and take one run lead which they held for the rest of the game, winning 5-4 in a thriller.
In the A grade grand final, while the umpires were giving their pregame final words to the coaches, the rain started to fall.
If the game starts and it rains, the game must continue to be played for at least one hour and five minutes to be classed as a game, but if it is called off before the time has lapsed, it is played the following week.
The game started with Rangers Black first to bat but failed to score any runs.
Bears could not do any better in their first turn at bat but after stopping Rangers again in the second, they waited for Rangers pitcher, Ben Campbell to throw each pitch.
And wait they had to, for it looked like to the spectators that Campbell was slowing up the game to use up time if the rain did not stop.
Bears, to their credit, kept trying and slowly brought in two runs in the second and another one in the third to lead three runs to nil at the top of the fourth and the rain had stopped.
Sun shining, Rangers Black came out swinging and scored their first run, then added another before they lost their third out and trail by just one run with Bears yet to bat.
Bears could taste victory and added another three runs in their at bat and with time running out, time and game was called with Bears winning 6-2.
