Turvey took the unusual move of resting their principal pitcher, Kate Looney, preferring to share the pitching duties with Belinda Dennis, Jade Olsen and youngster, Jamila Piercy.

The Warriors were spear-headed by State U19 player, Montana Kearnes, who pitched the entire game.

Turvey made a good start using the little-used Dennis to pitch in the first two innings in which the Warriors scored only one run.

That was in their second turn at bat when Sam Gilmour, who had picked a walk was advanced to third by a Jess Hawkins hit and then brought home on a Sam Vidler sacrifice fly.

Turvey, meanwhile, had runners on base in both of their first two innings, but couldn’t bat them in.

With Jade Olsen pitching in the third innings, the Warriors were again shut out and in the Warriors’ fourth turn at bat, Olsen K-2’d all three outs for yet another scoreless dig.

However, whilst Turvey were doing well to restrict the Warriors scoring, they weren’t able to get runs themselves.

Turvey loaded up the bases in their third, but couldn’t open their account and fared no better in their fourth innings when shut out yet again.

Jamila Piercy was the next pitcher used by Turvey, but the Warriors took a liking to her and strung together a series of safe hits which yielded five runs, before Olsen was brought back. Another run was scored before the innings finished giving the warriors a commanding 7-0 lead, going into the bottom of the fifth.

With the threat of the mercy rule being applied, Turvey had to score at least one run in their fifth to avoid a premature finish.

And that’s exactly what they managed when an Amanda Gooden sacrifice fly sent Piercy (who had bunted well and been advanced by an Olsen safe hit) across the plate.

In the top of the sixth the Warriors mad the job even harder for Turvey to avoid the mercy rule when Jane Kearnes belted a home run over left field, bringing in daughter, Montana as well.

This time Turvey had to bat in at least two more runs to take the game to its maximum length, but, despite safe hits from Kathryn Armstrong (her second for the match) and Georgina Carter, no runs resulted, leaving the Warriors 9-1 victors.

Turvey Park will have to dig deep against Saints next round to retain second position. 

Meantime on Saturday, Saints clinched a semi-final berth with a comfortable 14-0 win over Lake Albert, with the mercy rule being applied after four innings.

Lake Albert was without classy short stop and handy batter, Jess Swaysland, but had Shae McMahon back in their lineup. Alicia McLean made it to first on an error, but the other three batters in the Lake’s opening innings were regulation dismissals.

In response, Gemma McGlynn, Tessa McGlynn, Kadison Hofert and Morgan Pearce all scored courtesy of some untidy Lake Albert fielding and safe hits to Hofert, Pearce and Alison Burgess.

It was a case of ‘three up-three down’ for Lake Albert in their second dig, before another flurry of runs were scored by the Saints following to Tess McGlynn and Pearce.

Lake Albert’s third innings was a repeat of their second, but they then managed to shut out Saints in the bottom of the third.

Jess Grant hit a two-bagger to right field in the top of the fourth, but was left on base when the third dismissal was made and then the Saints batted in the fourth until the desired margin for the application of the mercy rule was reached.

Both Gemma and Tessa McGlynn, Mahala and Kadison Hofert and Desi-Ann Calder had safe hits in that final innings.

The Katrina Powell Shield competition for local high school teams will continue Monday and Tuesday at French Fields at 4.30pm.  

A replay of last year’s final between Mt Austin and Kooringal High should be the highlight of Monday’s games, while on Tuesday the clash between Mt Austin High and Wagga High could well determine who will play expected opponent, Kooringal High, in this year’s final.

The other game on Monday will see Wagga High meet Mater Dei, while Tuesday’s other fixture is between TRAC and Kooringal High.