Softball: Cardinals carry the day in Champions Cup

Cardinals batter Tane Mercer lines up a ball from Dodgers pitcher Nelson Yorston while Dodgers...
Cardinals batter Tane Mercer lines up a ball from Dodgers pitcher Nelson Yorston while Dodgers catcher Matt Watts and umpire Duncan Watts look on during Champions Cup day at Ellis Park on Saturday. Photo by Gerard O'Brien.
Cardinals sealed an appropriate end to a successful season when they beat Dodgers in back-to-back Champions Cup games on Saturday.

The regular-season champions won both games, 5-3 and 7-0, removing any need to come back for a third and deciding game.

Doug Hill gave Cardinals the perfect start to the final day of the season when he belted a home run off the first ball of the first game, before Matt Watts replied with his own big blast for Dodgers in the bottom of the first inning.

It remained 1-1 until the bottom of the fourth inning, when Watts scored on a sacrifice fly from brother Cam to give Dodgers a 2-1 lead.

Cardinals made their big move in the fifth, pouring in four runs - three on errors and one from a Tane Mercer RBI single.

That was the end of the scoring until the bottom of the seventh inning, when Logan Herbert hit an RBI double for a consolation run for Dodgers.

In the second game, Cardinals grabbed an early 2-0 lead through the first inning and added a third run in the second.

Cardinals moved to 6-0 with a Mitchell Finnie two-RBI single and a Grant Phillips RBI single in the fourth inning, and iced the shutout and the season with a solo Riki Washington homer in the fifth.

Jacob Wedlock pitched both games for Cardinals, and proved typically difficult for the Dodgers batters.

 

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