Cape Town Baseball Federation’s (CTBF) A-side swept all teams before them to retain the senior South African Baseball Union’s National Baseball Championship trophy at the Abe Sher Stadium in Bothasig on Sunday 3 April.
The 10 senior teams that entered the tournament were divided into two divisions.
Three CTBF teams: A-side, B-side and an u-23 side were joined by their Gauteng counterparts to form the A-division and Eden, Limpopo, Mandela Bay and Eastern Cape formed the B-Division. KwaZulu-Natal did not enter any teams in either junior or senior sections.
The A-side, coached by experienced campaigner Alan Phillips, were unbeaten in the round robin phase of the tournament and ended on top of the division, followed by the CTBF B-side who only had one loss. Gauteng A sneaked into third place with only two wins from their five fixtures.
CTBF u-23 side ended fourth, also with two wins.
With the top four teams qualifying for the semi-finals, CTBF A was too strong for their u-23 side beating them 17-5.
After three innings the scores were 3-3 before the inexperience of the u-23s was exposed and punished by the A-side.
Gauteng A avenged their defeat to the CTBF B side earlier in the tournament by beating them 15-4 in the other semi-final to qualify for the final.
Gauteng A were cruising 8-0 at one stage before the CTBF B side put a mini-rally together.
The rally was enough for Gauteng to replace starting pitcher Damon King with another front-line pitcher Kieron Cree for the last two innings.
This was significant as Gauteng A ran out of pitchers in the final, when they started with utility player Brad Erasmus on the mound.
He came unstuck in the first inning when Kyle Botha hit a three-run home run to open the scoring for CTBF A-side.
CTBF A side scored a further four runs off Erasmus before he was replaced by Kerion Cree in the third inning.
Cree conceded two runs in the third inning one of them a solo home run to Jason Carelse.
CTBF’s A-side scored a run in the sixth and seventh inning to win 11-1.
CTBF A started their pitching with Kevin Townend, who threw four scoreless innings before being replaced by Jared Elario, who threw the last three innings.
Gauteng A scored their solitary run in the sixth innings from a two-base by Aiden O’Connor and a sacrifice fly by Brandon Edmunds.
The B-Division was won by Nelson Mandela Bay, who also went unbeaten in their double round robin phase, before beating Eastern Cape in the semi-final and Eden (South Western Districts) 17-4 in the final, after Eden beat Limpopo in their semi-final.
In the junior section, Western Cape A made a clean sweep in u-12, u-15 and u-18 sections with Cape Town Baseball Federation winning the u-10 division.
All finals were against Gauteng A with the u-15 and u-18 going really close.
The u-15s won their final 7-6 in the last inning and the u-18s came back from 0-3 to win their final 6-5.
The u-12s won their final 10-5 and u-10 won 21-12 after both teams lost to their Gauteng A counterparts in the round robin phase of the tournament.
Gauteng Angels won the girls u-16 and Gauteng Gryphons won the ladies division.
South African Baseball Union (Sabu) vice president Paddy van Niekerk confirmed that the elite training squads will be announced soon in preparation for a busy international calendar for the rest of the year, while Sabu president Marc Moreau confirmed that next year’s National Baseball Championship will be held in Gauteng.
