Recap
The National Slowpitch Championship Series kicked off on Saturday with a best of 3 playoff series between the Mellieha Northenders and Brewers. Mellieha won 13 games during the regular season and faced off against a Brewers team who won 7 regular season games.
In this first game of the series, the Brewers started off by scoring 1 run in the top of the 1st inning. Mellieha responded immediately in the bottom of the inning, as Kevin Gauci drove in Steven Grima with an RBI single. With another man on base, Michael Bartolo proceeded to hit a 3-run homerun to give Mellieha a comfortable lead. Matt Borg padded the lead with an RBI single which scored Masashi Suzuki.
Mellieha continued extended their lead in the second inning with a run scored by Mattheus Konno to make it a 6-1 ballgame. Sharp defense from the Northenders and Brewers prevented any runs from scoring for 3 straight innings. In the 6th inning, Mellieha’s Steven Grima hit an RBI single which saw Owen Harnden score the 7th and final run. The game ended with another defensive web gem by the player of the game Michael Bartolo with a running catch down the 3rd base line.
With this 7-1 win over the Brewers, Mellieha are 1 win away from advancing to the final.