3/12/2008 - Rain spoils Mustangs chances of breaking the Mellieha Northenders winning streak

Saturday’s game saw the Northenders hosting the Mustangs with the Bartolo brothers missing from their side. Keith Bartolo along with younger brother Michael were at a Baseball training camp in Portugal and a trail to play for Jeka Breda a first division team in Holland. Keith was first seen by Charles Van der Meijs, when he was in here in Malta last year for a Baseball promoters course organized by MABS [Maltese Baseball Softball Association] with CEB [European Baseball Federation] and invited him to visit his club Jeka Breda in Holland. This was sure to be the Mustangs best opportunity to break the Northenders winning streak. Unfortunately for the Mustangs though the rain wouldn’t allow the game to go further than the 2nd inning and had to be held up with the Mustangs leading 4 runs to 2. In Baseball though, if the game is stopped due to rain without playing at least 5 innings the game will continue on another day with the same score as they left off, the same players in the line up as started, same score with same runners on base.

Sunday was nothing but sunshine for the Gozo Tornadoes as they hosted the Devils at Sannat field. The Devils still without a win managed to score the most runs yet from the games they have played so far but unfortunately also gave away too many runs due to defensive errors and poor pitching. The Devils will continue to suffer as their pitchers fail to find the strike zone and give away runs by walking batters. On the other hand we the Devils have improved offensively as they are hitting the baseball more and have been more aggressive while running the bases.   The Gozo Tornadoes dominated the game and 16-6 was the final score in 5 innings with another big hit from Shaun Chircop also a double from Mark Buttigieg, hits from Jeff Tabone, Charles Attard and most of their line up batting well. The Devils offense was lead by a Robert Mifsud’s performance sending the ball into centre field for double in the third inning. Hits from Ronald Sillick and Malcolm Cross also helped bring in some runs for the Devils.