First placed Newton Aycliffe Spartans travelled to Merseyside last weekend to take on Liverpool Trojans and thanks to two convincing victories, they remain on course to secure their first ever AA Northern Division title.
Game 1 saw both teams pitchers struggle.  Spartans jumped out to a quick 14-0 lead thanks to some great hitting from Lee Hill, Jason Hill and Bryan Dunkel.  However the home side kept themselves in the game, capitalising on the Spartans failing to find the strike zone.  Liverpool scored 10 times despite only recording 3 hits. The Spartans shrugged off a poor 2nd inning to score 7 unanswered runs in the 3rd inning and that proved to be enough of an insurance marker to ensure the victory thanks to a 21-10 score line.
In game 2, Spartans shrugged of the inconsistency shown in the previous game and showed little mercy as they put on a rampant batting display, scoring 8 times in the 1st inning, 3 times in the 2nd inning, and 21 times in the 3rd inning and this backed up by a great pitching performance from player coach Mike Holton who holds the league record for runs allowed (1.42) .  Eight of the nine Spartan batters contributed to the runs scored.  Damian Valdez hit a 3 run home run and had 5 runs batted in (RBI’s) along with Mike Holton and Steve Rixon with 5 RBI’s.  Stu Bradon collected 5 hits from 5 plate appearances whilst knocking in 3 runs.  Final Score Spartans 32 Liverpool Trojans 4
Spartans have a break from competitive action and are back in action later in July and with only a handful of games remaining, are in pole position to take their first ever AA Northern Division title in only their third season in existence.