Claxton Shield First Round Results
The Claxton Shield tournament in Australia has completed their first round of play. Queensland downed New South Wales in the opener 4-3. Alan Schoenberger ripped four hits to lead the Queensland offense, his double in the ninth inning starting the winning rally. A player to watch is Mitchell Nilsson for Queensland, who signed with the Cleveland Indians. If he can play near as well as his uncle Dave the Indians have themselves a catcher, though Dave was always better with the stick than the glove. Hopefully he’s better at staying healthy than his uncle.
New South Wales got even with Queensland in their second matchup, bombing them 10-1. Trent D’Antonio and Andrew Graham each had three hits to lead the 12 hit assault. Timothy Cox pitched seven innings of one run ball to pick up the win and even the series at one game apiece.
In the other first round action the Victoria Aces held off a comeback by the defending champion Perth Heat to pull out a 9-8 win. Victoria scored all nine of their runs in the first three innings and then made five errors to try to put Perth back in the game. Paul Weichard got three hits and drove in two runs and Hayden Dingle went deep to drive in three runs. Timothy Kennelly had a homerun and drove in three runs to lead the Perth offense. Victoria made three errors and threw two wild pitches to assist Perth with their comeback.
Victoria then pounded out six runs in the eighth to sweep Perth 8-3 in the two game series. The Victoria offense assaulted Perth for six hits and two walks in the six run barrage. Mathew Blackmore threw four innings of shutout relief to get the win. Travis Murphy gave up five of the six runs for Perth and took the loss. That leaves the defending champion Perth Heat starting off the Claxton Shield tournament at 0-2.
You can follow the tournament at http://www.claxtonshield.baseball.com.au/. The second round begins November 12.