In what was beautiful conditions for baseball, the Bathurst Phantoms took game one, 9 runs to 7 from last year’s grand finalist the Lizards.

The game was tight all the way with some crucial hitting from Nathan Maxwell and Brad Simister of the Phantoms, and Aaron Bailey and Brendan Roach of the Lizards.

Lizards coach and closing pitcher Peter Nunan said after the game “I made two mistakes trying to close out the game, one with a fastball and one with the curve.

“The Phantoms didn’t miss and that was the difference”.

If they continue this way, Phantoms looks like a reliable prospect.

The second game was a more one sided affair with Cougars jumping out to a 9 run to 0 lead against competition debutants Orange Raiders.

After finding their feet on the diamond, Raiders pulled the score back late in the game to 9 – 4.

This indicates that it will not be long until the Raiders will be competitive on any given day.

Cougar’s evergreen captain coach Jason Lane was outstanding on the mound and had good hitting support from Josh Denley and Joel Cameron.

Raiders displayed strong performances by Lachlan Witaman, Kathryn Cox and Terry Bruton.

The Shane Wright Memorial Baseball Competition would like to thank the Wallerawang Bowling Club for being the major sponsor of the competition and major sponsor of local teams the Lizards, Cougars and the Cutters.

A special thanks also goes out to Jeff and Matt Kemp for their kind donation of dolerite for maintenance of the base paths.

This Sunday’s games see the inaugural start of the Wallerawang District Junior Baseball competition at 9:30am.

Round Two of the Shane Wright Memorial Baseball Competition sees the Cutters take on the Cougars at 11:00am.

Phantoms go up against the Raiders at 1:15pm.

Lizards have the bye.