Cubs toast baseball title
The desire to start a dynasty is likely to put retirement thoughts on hold for the majority of the victorious Cubs A baseballers.
Cubs A ended Shogun Heat’s run of six consecutive Cairns Baseball League majors titles with victory in the deciding game last Friday.
Cubs A veteran Matt Bolton said the players were keen to try to go back-to-back in 2010.
"All the boys are in pretty high spirits and looking to go around again," he said yesterday.
"Obviously we haven’t gone back-to-back before so all the boys are pretty keen to keep on keeping on.
"We were calling ourselves the streak breakers because Reds won 10 in a row then we beat them, then Shogun Heat won six in a row and we beat them so we wouldn’t mind starting our own little streak.’’
The 10-3 scoreline in the final of the three-match series belied the closeness of the contest.
The momentum shifted in the middle of the match when Shogun Heat failed to capitalise with bases loaded and no outs.
Bolton said it was an impressive effort to beat a team with players of the calibre of dual Olympian Brett Roneberg, who pitched five innings on Friday.
"It was fantastic," he said.
"A lot of the guys that played have been there a long, long time and the young guys, I remember them as 14-year-olds and now they are 27- or 28-year-olds and still playing the sport and playing at a very high level.
"I felt like a proud dad or granddad. To play against guys of Brett’s calibre and the rest of team as well, we were pretty happy.’’
Cubs A’s Cameron Davis was named MVP of the finals series. Davis pitched two of the three games, hit well and performed strongly at shortstop.
Bolton said Cubs A pitchers Kevin Gosden and Greg Wicks also performed strongly.
"I take my hat off to the pitching of guys like Kevin Gosden and Greg Wicks," he said.
"Kevin pitched the first four innings very, very well and they scored a couple of runs off him and then Greg came in and got us out of quite a few jams that could have gone either way.’’
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