Hurricanes blown away as Piesse hits for the cycle

After a stuttering start, the teams were evenly matched through the opening innings as pitcher Russ Percy and his Hurricanes counterpart probed and tested the offense.

It looked as though the Falcons would pull away in the second, with Jodie Bowry punching to centre field and first baseman Yuka Wada, on her long-awaited return to the team, scrambled to first base but the Hurricanes continued to match Chichester with runs of their own, following a two-out four-walk inning.

Molly Rayner repeatedly smashed the ball to the outfield whilst keeping a steady second base and Charlie Thacker helped with two catches deep in foul territory as the Falcons barely crept into the lead but still Hursley stood their ground, gratefully tagging Jenny Horton at home, who went one base too far after a fine shot to deep left.

Debutant Martin Ford impressed with a long homer to centre right and the Falcons dealt well with anything in the air; James Wheeler picked out a looper in centre field while Liz Boardman and Bowry both picked out high bloopers just behind home plate.

Chichester finally blew the doors off in the sixth inning. A sequence of singles and doubles kicked off by MVP Hettie McNeil, David Morris and Thacker turned into a hit parade, with the Falcons putting a monumental fourteen runs up to take the game beyond the Hurricanes' reach at 29-13.

Notably, Dave Piesse reached second base that inning, and thus 'hit for the cycle' - this is the very rare accomplishment of hitting a single, double, triple and a home run in the same game.