Baseball hierarchy remains

Thunderbolt: Lismore Workers’ pitcher Bryce Martin in action at the weekend.

GAMES in Saturday's Rex Airlines Far North Coast Baseball failed to change the status quo when it came to the competition table, with the Norths, Redbirds double header being shared whilst Workers accounted for Brothers.

Redbirds took the honours in game 1 with a solid 11-4 win on the back of a Robbie Pruess game-winning pitching performance.

Pruess put on a show for the crowd, working his way through seven innings of control, giving little away to the As.

While he failed to strike out a single batter, he gave up just two walks, hit three batters and conceded just seven hits for the day.

Whilst Pruess made the job easy for his side, Easts rallied with the bats from the start, with a barrage of hits from top to bottom throughout the game. Jack Jeffery (three hits and three RBIs) and Pruess (three hits) led the Redbirds offence, but it was a Nick Shailes two-run home run in the top of the first that placed Norths firmly on the back foot.

The second leg of the double header could well have been two different sides, with both teams providing a mirror image of their performance in game 1.

Norths were able to string together hits and convert their runners at vital times that brought the side home with runs in the fourth and sixth innings to take the game 4-1.

In the remaining game of the afternoon Workers grabbed the points with a 11-5 win over Brothers.

Workers were on fire with the bat throughout the game, but it was the Brethren who drew first blood in the second, scoring two runs to put their opponents firmly on the back foot.

However, Workers had other ideas, running away with the game with four runs in the seventh.

Dallas Knapp came back to form of old, knocking up two doubles, a triple and four runners across the plate on his way to a game-high four hits.