The Bellingen Brewers B grade squad posted their fifth consecutive win on Saturday, 10-7 over the Sawtell Dodgers, raising their season record to 9-3.
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Bellingen never trailed in the game, but struggled to put away the shorthanded Dodgers. The Brewers were their own worst enemies at bat, running into three outs on the base paths.
After each side failed to score in the first inning, Bellingen pushed two runs across in the top of the second, with Jon Lowe's two-out double the key blow. But they gave one of those runs back in the bottom half of the inning with a two-out error.
The Brewers answered with three more runs in the top of the third to extend their lead to 5-1, with Darren Jackson doubling to drive in two. But Nathan Secomb, who had an outstanding day for Sawtell at bat and in the field in both grades, blasted a two-run home run in the bottom half of the inning to narrow the gap to 5-3.
Each team scored twice in the fourth inning. The Dodgers pushed their runs across and had the bases loaded with one out, but Paul Holding pitched his way out of further trouble.
Leading 7-5, the Brewers tacked on three more runs in the top of the fifth inning, with Scott Hansen driving in two. But trailing 10-5, Sawtell rallied again, scoring twice and bringing the tying run to the plate with two out, before Lowe's heads up play at shortstop secured the win.
In A grade, Bellingen could not repeat last week's sweep, going down to the Dodgers 7-2.
Sawtell opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning. Rob Kozik's rocket throw from left field to cut down a Dodgers runner trying to score held them to a single run.
The hitters on both sides were stymied until Sawtell struck again with four runs in the bottom of the third inning to extend their lead to 5-0. From there, the pitchers again held sway until the top of the sixth inning, when the Brewers rallied.
Kozik got things started with one out, beating out an infield grounder. Tim Hearn followed with a single. With two out, Lee Coltman walked to load the bases, and Jeff Wilson followed with a two-run single, bringing the tying run to the plate. But that was where the rally ended, and Sawtell batted out the remaining time to seal the win.
The Brewers will be back in action next Saturday against the Coffs Harbour Allstars.
