Rangers continue to fire into the finals

TOOWOOMBA had a perfect trial for the post-season with a road victory in Carina at the weekend.

MONEY MAN: Sam McNeice (pictured during a game against Pine Hills) controlled the mound for the Rangers against Carina. Picture: Kevin Farmer

BASEBALL: The Toowoomba Rangers will enter the GBL division four finals with a mountain of momentum behind them.

In the final round of the regular season, the Rangers went into Carina’s home field and dominated Redsox Red to the tune of 13-3.

It was a statement game from the visitors against the team sitting in fourth, who secured second spot on the ladder.

Carina came out firing, taking a 1-0 lead through the first innings, before three in runs the second innings helped the Rangers take the advantage.

Player-coach Luke Ardill said their gun pitcher was a key reason they were able to keep themselves in the contest early.

“We started a bit slow with our bats, but Sam McNeice did an awesome job to keep us in the game until us batters were able to hit like we usually do,” Ardill said.

“He pitched the whole game and was outstanding.

“If everything works out well he’ll get another week off after our next game.”

A run in the fourth kept things ticking over, before a nine-run stretch in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings pushed them out to a game-winning 13-3 margin.

“We were able to click into gear in key periods of the game,” Ardill said.

“We’d had a few weeks off prior to our last two games, so it was a good test for us.

“Even though we did start slow, we were able to keep their runs to a minimum which was good to see.

“They really challenged us. For the first half of the game they really came at us and pushed us. But were able to hang on, build our momentum and win quite comfortably in the end.”

With a week off, the Rangers will next take on the Wests Bulldogs in the qualifying final on March 22 for a spot in the grand final.

“We’ll have a pretty heavy training session on Thursday with a light session on Sunday to work on a few things,” Ardill said.

“We’re confident that we can go down to Wests and get a result. They’re the main team that has pushed us, but we’ll take confidence and momentum into the game.

“Everyone will go down there knowing that they have a job to do, and I’m confident that we can execute that.”

The ledger is split between the Rangers and Bulldogs throughout the 2019/20 season, with both teams holding solid on their home field in their two encounters.

In division five, the Rangers threw everything at the Ipswich Musketeers in their road encounter, and were able to secure a 9-7 victory.

The win keeps them in fifth spot, one spot out of the finals equation, however a decision is yet to be made by league officials in regards to pending game cards from earlier in the season.

Originally published as