3/4/2008 - Mustangs win against Gozo Tornadoes while Mellieha Northenders winning streak continues

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 favor of the Mustangs. The Mustangs overpowered their opponents with a strong pitching performance and an equally impressive batting performance from most of their lineup.  Third baseman, Steve Ritchie topped the team in offense with his 3 for 4 performance.  He now leads his team with 5 hits on the season.  Mustang rookie second baseman, Sebastian Giudice ignited the offense early on with a hard hit RBI double in the second inning.  He also led the team with two stolen bases.

Gozo were unable to score except for the 3rd inning bringing in 3 runs and taking advantage of a few Mustang defensive errors. In Sunday’s game the Northenders started off the 2nd round of the Maltese National Baseball League just as they left off; with another win. The Northenders only needed 4 innings to score 14 runs and defeat the Devils for the 2nd time this season. Silvan Busuttil, Devils starting pitcher, managed to limit the Northenders to just 3 runs in the 1st inning, striking out Matthew Grech to end the top of the 1st. 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 on base. Mellieha scored 6 runs in the 2nd 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 3rd inning, had they scored another run the game would have been over due to the run-difference rule, however the Devils managed to stop their attack thanks to a 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 work on both their pitchers and their offence if they want to stand a chance against teams like the Northenders.