Tuatara split wins with Cavalry

Auckland Tuatara and Canberra Cavalry took a win each in Auckland yesterday as rain once again had an impact.

The first game was won 3-2 by the Tuatara in extra innings, while the second was a 2-1 victory for the Cavalry, with play abandoned in the eighth due to rain.

This was the second Saturday in a row where there had been dreadful weather, which isn’t helping the Tuatara get big walk up crowds.

The first game of the day had a dramatic finish, as pinch hitter Kris Richards got the winning hit, with runners on first and second bases.

Richards came in for Guiyuan Xu in the bottom of the eighth inning (this was a seven-inning game), hitting the ball into right field, through the fence, which emptied the Tuatara’s dugout in celebrations.

Richards was the star at the end of the game, but earlier Tuatara’s New Zealand pitcher Kyle Glogoski was again dominant, as he was in his previous two outings.

Glogoski blitzed his way through the first three innings, while Eric Jenkins unloaded in the bottom of the third for a home run in right field.

In the top of the fifth, Robbie Perkins hit a home run off Glogoski, making it the first run the Philadelphia Phillies prospect had given up this season.

The next two batters got on base for Canberra, so with the game being tight Tuatara manager Steve Mintz pulled Glogoski for Ryota Okumoto, who got through the inning.

But in the top of the sixth Zach Wilson hit a home run off Tomohito Sakai to put Canberra in front for the first time.

Lamb-Hunt hit a lead off double in the bottom of the sixth and with two outs, he was driven in by Zach Clark to level the scores again.

The first game of a double header in the ABL is always to seven innings, so with the score 2-2 after that, this game went to extra inning.

In the bottom of the eighth pinch hitter Andrew Marck drove the ball to right field with one out. Max Brown hit single, then Richards, half of the egg throwing world record holding team, hit the game winner, with a walk off ground rule double.

The final game of the series will be played at 3pm today, live streamed on Stuff.