Ballarat Brewers have suffered a second disappointing Summer League division two loss in three days to the Upwey Tigers, who posted a comprehensive 12-2 result at Kings Park on Saturday.
Committing six damaging defensive errors over the contest, the visitors conceded a demoralising seven runs in the first and five more in the sixth as the Tigers wrapped the game up on a mercy rule call.
Collecting just five hits for the game, the Brewers finally hit the scoreboard by scoring two in the seventh – though it was nowhere near enough to keep the game alive.
Starting against his old club, Brewers star Ricky Howell went the distance for his side in allowing ten hits and four walks over the six hitting innings completed by Upwey.
However, only six of the runs were earned as the Brewers’ defence was under pressure and its hitters struggled to provide any run support.
Hits to the Brewers were shared among five players, with Howell and the consistent Seth Haehl both picking up an RBI each in their last time at bat.
The Brewers are destined to now finish in the middle of the division two table, which is a solid season by any measure in this much tougher league.
The team must now prepare for a mid-week clash against the Malvern Braves on Wednesday, before returning to Prince of Wales to wind up a challenging season against Port Melbourne on Saturday.
It was a tough weekend across the board for the Brew Crew, who dropped their seconds game 10-1 and were flogged 21-1 in the thirds.
Meanwhile, the Under 16 team was out-gunned 19-2 against Doncaster in its second last game of the season.
