Chris Lawson stole the show as the New Forest Thunder Knights battled for a split against the Taunton Muskets on Sunday.
In a fiercely competitive day of baseball, the Knights showed their resolve to hold on for a game two win in extra innings.
Lawson hit the first ever home run for the newly formed South Coast team, before adding a second shortly afterwards. He also pitched two innings in relief to secure the first win of the season for Marcus Senior.
Senior got into his groove as the second game went on, picking up 16 strikeouts in an impressive tandem performance with Mitch Sullivan at Catcher.
Entering the first extra inning, the scores were tied at 8-8. The Knights performed heroics on defence to keep the score tied, with both Rob Holbrook and Alex Frampton throwing runners out at home plate.
Then in the second additional inning, hits from Sam Williams and Danny Vinkler helped break the game open before Lawson closed out a 17-9 win.
Earlier in the day the Muskets had edged a tight first game by a score of 7-6.
With the bases loaded twice in the first two innings, the away side were unable to push runs over the plate. In turn, a home run from Andres Bianco gave Taunton a six run lead.
However, the Knights fought back to level the game thanks to the bats of Sullivan, Lawson and Williams.
Despite shutting out the home side in four of the first five innings, the Knights weren’t able to prevent the Muskets from winning the game in the final inning. A single from Fumihito Yasuhara was enough to bring home the winning run.
Lawson’s huge day with the bat, and his pitching efforts earned him player of the day honours.
The Thunder Knights are next in action on 7th May as they travel to division leaders, Cardiff Merlins I.