What was expected to be a close game between the visiting Gozo Tornadoes and the Mustangs, turned out to be a lopsided 13-3 drubbing in favour of the Mustangs.
The Mustangs overpowered their opponents with a strong pitching performance and an equally impressive batting performance from most of their line-up.
Third baseman, Steve Ritchie topped the team in offence with his 3 for 4 performance. He now leads his team with five hits on the season. Mustang rookie second baseman, Sebastian Giudice ignited offence early on with a hard hit RBI double in the second inning. He also led the team to two stolen bases.
Gozo were unable to score except for the third inning bringing in three runs and taking advantage of a few Mustang defensive errors.
In Sunday’s game the Northenders started off the second round of the Maltese National Baseball League just as they left off; with another win. The Northenders only needed four innings to score 14 runs and defeat the Devils for the second time this season.
Silvan Busuttil, Devils starting pitcher, managed to limit the Northenders to just three runs in the first inning, striking out Matthew Grech to end the top of the first.
Clint Grima, however, pitching in his first game this season, was a dominating force on the mound and confused the Devil batters with his variety of pitches, allowing no one to get to base.
Mellieha scored six runs in the second inning, taking advantage of the Devils, who changed pitchers twice. At the bottom of the inning the Devils once again did not manage to hit Grima’s pitches or get on base.
Northenders made it 14-0 in the third inning, had they scored another run the game would have been over due to the run-difference rule: however, the Devils managed to stop the attack thanks to an impressive fielding performance by left-field Silvan Busuttil who caught two fly-balls for two of the outs.
In what would be the last inning of the game, the Devils managed to stop the Northenders from scoring any runs, and also showed some improvement in batting, after catcher Ronald Sillick managed to get his first hit of the season.
The Devils have mainly shown considerable improvement in fielding but yet need to win on both their pitchers and their offence if they want to stand a chance against teams like the Northenders.