Newton Aycliffe Spartans and their British Baseball Federation AA Division playoff aspirations received a massive boost last weekend – and they did so without even facing one pitch.
Spartans were due to travel to Lancashire to twice play Bolton Robots of Doom but the home side were unable to fulfil the fixtures due to a player shortage.
As a result Spartans were awarded both games 7-0 and took a valuable 4 points. This still leaves Spartans outside the playoff positions but with six games left to play in the regular season and all of these at their home field at Sunnydale Leisure Centre in Shildon, Assistant Coach, Mike Holton reckons the team can challenge for the a playoff place.
“You never like to take the points without playing a game, but this at this stage of the season, points are more critical. With six games to come, all at home, I’m confident that six wins will send us to the post season playoffs”
In recent weeks Spartans have had mixed results, splitting games on the road against bottom side Oldham North Stars and most recently again splitting a 2 game series at home against third place and in-form Manchester A’s.
Mike Holton added, “Against Oldham we should have won both games. We are scoring plenty of runs and the fact we are the third highest scorers in the division reflects that. But we need to keep the opposition from scoring and we have been working the defensive side of the game in our training sessions’
Spartans face Sheffield Bladerunners in a two game series on Sunday 11th August with the first pitch at 12 noon. All Spartans home games take place at Sunnydale Leisure Centre in Shildon.
If you fancy trying Baseball, new players, female or male, experienced or inexperienced are invited to come along and try one of the fastest growing team sports in the UK. Details of training sessions are on the Spartans website www.newtonaycliffespartans.co.uk
