ROB’S RECAPS - STATE LEAGUE DIVISION 1 - GRAND FINAL - GAME 1
BASEBALL (March 21, 2025)
SAINTS HAVE ONE HAND ON THE CUP
By Robert Laidlaw
STURT IS HALF WAY TO achieving division one baseball club history, after beating Henley & Grange 7-1 in Friday night’s first game of the 2024-25 grand final, at West Beach Parks.
If the Saints can win game two on Saturday night (7.30pm), it will be the first time Sturt has won back-to-back division one premierships – but if it loses, a deciding game three will be played on Sunday at 3.30pm.
Game one was tight early, as the Saints’ Ky Hampton and Jordy Grose for Henley were in an absorbing battle, with neither daring to blink, as both pitchers did not give up a hit over the first three innings, with the game locked at 0-0.
Finally with one out at the top of the fourth, Terrell Joyce doubled, went to third base on Jordan McArdle’s grounder and came home on a balk – 1-0 Sturt.
But the Rams answered immediately in the bottom of the fourth, and could have taken the lead except for an exceptional double play.
With one out, Liam Bull tripled, Wilson Lee singled him home and went to third base on Lou Helmig’s hit, but Koki Yonezawa’s hard line drive smash was caught by Hampton, who threw to third base to catch Lee in no-man’s land.
An error opened the door for the Saints at the top of the fifth dig, when Simon Baumer hit a RBI double and scored on Harry Knuckey’s single for a pair of runs and a 3-1 lead.
Then the disastrous sixth for Henley, as a two-out error after Simon Adkins and Jackson Brebner-Russ collected hits, set up Knuckey’s RBI single and Mitch Lightbody’s two-run double, as Sturt scored four runs to go 7-1 up, which remained the final score.
Hampton went the distance, conceding four hits for eight strikeouts in nine innings, while Grose went eight frames for eight hits and four K2s.
The play of the day was a sensational catch in the second dig by Henley rightfielder Helmig, who ran hard along the home run fence into foul territory, leapt high and grabbed the ball with no fear for his own safety.
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Division one baseball grand final results.
Game one:
Sturt 0 0 0 1 2 4 0 0 0 – 7
Henley & Grange 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 – 1
Hits: Sturt – Knuckey 2, Lightbody 2, Joyce, Baumer, Brebner-Russ, Adkins; H&G – Helmig 2, Bull, Lee. WP: K, Hampton; LP: J. Grose).