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Sport | Baseball

Baseball: Tuatara lose opener in new home

The Auckland Tuatara had an emotional start to their second season in the Australian Baseball League. There was excitement over the team playing at its official home of QBE Stadium, disappointment at the eventual 6-1 loss to the Perth Heat, but mostly sadness over the shock passing of pitcher Ryan Costello midweek.
Costello, who died this week aged 23, was honoured pre match by both sides with a minute’s silence. The Tuatara also had ‘RC’ emblazoned on their jerseys.
However, once the game started the home side struggled for any offensive production. Despite pitcher Kyle Glogoski restricting the Heat to a scoreless opening inning, the Tuatara couldn’t manage a base hit. The Heat, meanwhile, opened the scoring with a solo home run by Niko Hulsizer – making him the first player ever to pass the plate at the new venue.
Glogoski was replaced by Emerson Martinez after just two innings. Alex Hall then doubled the Heat’s lead in the fourth with another solo home run, before the Tuatara finally got something going with their turn at bat. Hansen Moreno first hit a double to get into scoring position, then was driven home by Jared Walker to make the score 2-1.
Any thoughts of a comeback were short lived, though. Hall blasted a three-run homer in the fifth to make it an uphill battle in the seven-inning game and the Heat tacked on another insurance run in the sixth to make the victory safe.
It capped a build-up to a game that involved the most serious distraction that any team can deal with, so the loss was at least understandable for manager Stephen Mintz.
“All the work that’s gone in to putting this together, and to get out there and play baseball – we were super happy” he said.
“I’m not going to make excuses for us. They flew from Perth over here to play, they had better at bats than we did. It’s that simple.”
The two sides meet again tonight at QBE Stadium, first pitch at 7pm.