Softball: Age no barrier for Ellis Park

Age could not slow Ellis Park, as it upset the defending champion Saints in the opening round of premier club softball in Dunedin on Saturday.

Ellis Park shocked the Saints 7-6, with the Dodgers coming from behind to beat the Cardinals 13-9 in the second game.

The results made for an entertaining start to the club season in chilly and windy conditions.

Ellis Park was struggling to fill its roster weeks ago and, on Saturday, fielded possibly the oldest pitcher-catcher combination in Dunedin softball history, with 50-year-old Peter Mathieson on the mound and 53-year old Grant Johnstone behind the plate.

But the side shrugged off its battles to get a morale-boosting win on opening day.

Both teams scored two runs in the first inning, then the Saints scored two more in a third inning highlighted by Michael Crowley's triple.

Ellis Park got on top of Saints pitcher Mark Ahlfeld in the top of the fourth and poured in five runs.

Luge Egan tripled and was brought home by a Mathieson hit, Mathieson scored on a fielder's choice, Kate Brewerton and Bevan Campbell were batted in by Sean Martin, and Johnstone scored on a Mitchell O'Neill error.

Brewerton's debut in men's softball included two walks and a ground-out to first.

Sam Jones replaced Ahlfeld on the Saints mound and pitched three clean innings.

Trailing 7-4 going into the bottom of the seventh, the Saints got back into the game with Crowley and Ahlfeld scoring, but Lachie Brensell flied out to right field to end the game.

In the other game, the Dodgers leaped to a 2-0 start on the back of home runs by Jamie Robinson and Brendan Taylor.

The Cardinals responded with four runs at the top of the third and three at the top of the fourth to take a commanding 7-2 lead.

All that did was prompt the Dodgers' bats into action.

They cracked five runs at the bottom of the fourth and six at the bottom of the fifth to take control of the game.

Scott Cartwright had a double and a triple for the Dodgers, who also had five batters walked in two innings by Cardinals pitcher Joshua Ludlow.

Doug Hill added a late homer for the Cardinals but Dodgers pitcher Ben Watts cleaned up the game with two strike-outs in the final inning, giving him nine for the game.