Northstars look to finish strong
- belfastnorthstars
- Aug 29, 2014
- 2 min read
This weekend will see the Belfast Northstars put in some overtime; because of weather delays the Stars will be taking part in a triple header at Henry Jones field on the last day of league play in the 2014 season.
First up will be the A team, taking on the Greystones Mariners in the rubber match of this season’s series. It was back at the end of the April when the teams clashed in Dublin, Mark Smith matched up against Jaime Cuevas and a true pitcher’s duel ensued. Two quality starts were only separated on the day by an RBI single by Garreth Donnelly driving in Paul Coomes in the bottom of the tenth.
Belfast would even the series in the second game with Gord Cuthbert leading the way in a 12-8 slugfest that saw even run production up and down the batting order. Despite seven errors in the game, Cuthbert’s outing (7.0 IP, 4 H, 8 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 2 K) would give his team a chance and by jumping out to an 11-4 lead after four, the Stars would hold off a resilient Mariners team to leave Dublin honours even.
The B team will take the field lunchtime Sunday to meet the Black Sox in a double header and the only meetings of those B squads this season. The Stars were on the wrong end of the season series last year, narrowly taking the first in a 10-8 win thanks to Jonathan Sculli and Stephen Rogan combining for 5 RBI on the day.
The second and third games in the series, both losses to the Northstars were true slugfests – the first game saw seven errors for the Belfast side that the Black Sox were only too quick to take advantage of leading to a 13-11 victory for the Shankill team.
In the deciding match, the Stars bats were red hot, unfortunately the team was not any better defensively, 10 errors leading to 16 unearned runs in the game. Going into the bottom of the ninth inning, Belfast would find themselves 19-13 down and despite plating four runs, the comeback would prove too little too late.
The Stars will hope that they can finish this 2014 season strong and gather steam for the playoff run ahead.
