Baseball: Old Anandians dethrones Old Royalists

Old Anandians defeated reigning Sri Lanka Baseball champions Old Royalists in the quarter-finals of the Sri Lanka Baseball Championship for the Singer Cup at the Sri Lanka-Japan Friendship Baseball Grounds, Diyagama on Saturday (7). 

Old Anandians with this 10/9 win qualified to meet Sri Lanka Army in the second semi-final which was scheduled to be played in the evening. 

Due to rain in the evening the match was abandoned with only three innings completed with SL Army in the lead. 

Due to non completion of four innings a new match will be played on Sunday (8). 

The winners will meet Sri Lanka Navy in the finals. 

Old Anandians led from the start in the quarter-final against Old Royalists. 

However Old Royalists came back strongly to score nine runs but unfortunately failing to win the match. 

Old Anandian pitcher Naveen used his experience and completed the last inning without conceding any runs. 

Sunday's events will commence at 8.00am with the SL Army-Old Anandians clash and at 10.30am the Women's Baseball clash between SL Army and SL Navy will be played. 

The all important finals between SL Navy and the winners of the SL Army-Old Anandians clash is scheduled to take place at 1.00pm. 

Hiroko Yamada, a member at Large of World Baseball Federation and Director International Affairs of Baseball Federation of Japan arrived in the island to witness the ladies match and to see the ongoing development of the game in Sri Lanka.