It was about as emphatic a win as the Eagles could possibly have dreamt up, too, as Dean Fulco starred with the bat while each of Eastern Hill’s bowlers stood up with ball in hand, completing a 131-run rout of Eynesbury in the one-day clash as attention now turns to the post-season.
Winning the toss and electing to bat, Fulco and Billy Cox strode out to the middle and set about their work cautiously before ramping up the run rate, successfully taking the team total beyond 50 before disaster struck.
Cox holed out for 22 in the 17th over, bringing an end to the opening partnership at 1-59, before Ben Bryant was removed for a golden duck with the very next ball, leaving the Eagles at 2-59 as Eynesbury’s Caiden Connelly found himself on a hat-trick.
Oscar Newell successfully denied Connelly the honour, though, and for the next 13 overs continued to turn the strike over as Fulco began to motor at the other end, raising his bat for a half-century. The pair combined for a 56-run stand for the third wicket before Newell (18) was ultimately sent packing with 15 overs remaining in the innings, leaving Eastern Hill at 3-115.
Nathan Fowler (15 from 11) provided some firepower in a short cameo, before his dismissal left the Eagles four down with 140 on the board.
Fulco fell just a few overs later in pursuit of quick runs, dismissed for a brilliant 89 that included six boundaries, as the home side slumped to 5-167 with five overs remaining.
Ollie Bryant (19), Seamus Feery (13 not out) and Daniel O’Sullivan (12 not out) all added handy lower-order contributions in the final overs of the innings, helping Eastern Hill post a competitive total of 8-198 from the allotted 45 overs, setting the visitors a target of 199 for victory as responsibility was shifted over to the bowlers.
Perhaps stinging from his golden duck with the bat, Ben Bryant was at his rampaging best with the ball, earning the early breakthrough in the sixth over as Eynesbury fell to 1-18, which he followed up with a second in his next over, leaving the visitors in early trouble at 2-20.
Not to be outdone, Fowler joined the party four balls later to claim his first scalp of the afternoon and made it two in two balls with his next delivery. While he was denied a hat-trick, he did plenty of damage, with Eynesbury struggling at 4-20 with nine overs down.
But the carnage wasn’t yet complete, as Bryant snared a third with the first ball of the 10th over, which saw the visitors slump to 5-20, and Fowler (3-35) made it 6-21 with the second ball of the 11th as the Eagles smelled blood in the water.
Eynesbury rallied somewhat, adding 18 runs for the seventh wicket, however Bryant was on hand to break that partnership too, nabbing his fourth to bring his figures to 4-13 as the visitor fell to 7-39.
An eighth-wicket partnership of 21 runs took Eynesbury beyond the 50-run mark, however when Tim Rudd-Schmidt snared his first in the 22nd over, leaving the visitors at 8-60, the end came quickly.
With a double-wicket over in his next set of six, Rudd-Schmidt brought about an early end to the Eynesbury innings, bowling the side out for 67 while finishing with figures of 3-3 from three overs, as the Eagles romped to an unbeaten regular season to finish atop the ladder with a 12-0 record and a massive 31.04-point gap to second.
Attention now turns to this weekend’s semi-final, with the Eagles set to host Kilmore at Kings Park on Saturday and Sunday in a two-day contest with a spot in the decider on the line.
The Eagles hold the wood over Kilmore in recent encounters, claiming a 44-run victory in a T20 clash in round eight, as well as a 250-run first innings win in a two-day clash in round 11, and will look to continue the trend when the first ball of the semi-final is bowled at 12.30pm on Saturday.
