A game that had absolutely everything – it was an All-Ireland rounders semi-final to savour and it lived up to all expectations.
It will probably go down as one of the best men’s semi-finals you could ever see.
The Heath men and Carrickmacross of Monaghan went toe to toe and the match provided excitement, drama, comebacks and even extra time resulting in a replay which is definitely worth seeing.
The Heath won the toss and chose to field. Carrickmacross started the game well – scoring 4 in their first inning with The Heath replying with 3 after good fielding from the men from Monaghan.
From then on, the game produced high quality rounders from both sides.
Firstly, from the part of Austin O’Meara and James Farrell of The Heath teaming up to get Carrickmacross out for nothing with the game bursting into life.
The Heath then took the lead for the first time in the game and good batting from James Kavanagh put The Heath in the driving seat and lead by 5 in the 2nd inning.
With more good fielding from The Heath with catches from Diarmaid Lalor on 1st base kept Carrickmacross at bay and they didn’t score in the 3rd innings either.
The Heath were now hoping to put a bit of daylight between the teams but Carrickmacross responded and showed why they qualified for the semi-final with great fielding from short stop Patrick Bermingham and Oran Kiernan.
The Laois side led going into the 5th inning 11-7 but then the drama started to happen with the first and only home run of the day came from Ronan Kiernan of Carrickmacross with the momentum now tilting towards the Monaghan side.
The Heath responded in kind and pushed the lead out to 8 going into the final inning, with the men in black and amber on the brink of sealing their place in the final.
However, Carrickmacross had other ideas, they showed lots of bottle with super batting and they eventually turned the game on its head.
They were on the brink of collapse and now somehow, they led by 4 with The Heath needing 5 to win from their last inning.
The Heath matched the bottle Carrickmacross showed at the start of the inning and replied to draw the game which meant the game would go into 2 extra innings as the game was tied at 24-24 after an epic 7 innings of rounders.
Carrickmacross batted first in extra time getting 6 scores with The Heath responding with 3. Carrickmacross smelt blood at this stage and added another 5 to put 8 between the teams giving The Heath an up-hill battle to pull this game out of the fire.
With 2 players out it was looking like The Heath were going to exit the championship, but they had other plans. They had the bases loaded needing one to draw and two to win with two people out.
Seamus Gorman was up to bat and he held his nerve to get The Heath’s Mick Slevin home and the game was a draw. Both teams showed bags of character coming back from the dead producing scintillating rounders throughout the game.
The drama didn’t end there, it then went down to innings won to decide who would face Glynn/Barntown of Wexford and fittingly that was a draw too so a replay will happen to separate these two great sides next weekend.
The Heath Team: Rory Treacy, Tom Moore, Mick Slevin, Seamus Gorman, Jamie Dowling, Austin O’Meara, Philip Keane, Diarmaid Lalor, James Farrell, James Kavanagh and Justin Keane.
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The post The Heath men’s rounders team produce a stunning comeback to force a replay appeared first on Laois Today.
source https://www.laoistoday.ie/2020/09/29/the-heath-mens-rounders-team-produce-a-stunning-comeback-to-force-a-replay/
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