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Mills rules over Cyclones
Right-hander allows three runs in nine innings, picks up second win
TE ATATU - Over the past month, Matt Mills has quieted his critics, displayed his enormous toughness -- and most importantly -- proven quite capable of being a pitcher the Wildcats can depend on for many weeks to come.
Making his second start since December 6th, Mills dominated an injury-depleted-but-still-impressive Cyclones lineup and gave the Wildcats further reason to believe they can go into their bye week with confidence, and come back even stronger for the final round.
Mills' solid nine-inning effort combined with a surprising and encouraging double highlighted the 9-3 win the Wildcats claimed over the Cyclones at McLeod Park on Sunday morning.
"He was great," manager Ken Sommers said of Mills, who allowed just one contested earned run in his eight innings. "He didn't look intimidated. He didn't look scared. He was out there going at guys, making pitches. It's not a fun lineup to pitch against and he just shut them down."
Mills' performance continued to fuel some optimism for the Wildcats, who have nine victories in their past ten games. They now top the Auckland Premier league and look certain to pick up a spot in the final.
Along with Mills' mound dominance, they received some stellar defence from Gareth Hooton and saw an alert and cerebral Sam Tucker notch a key stolen base that led to the decisive run in the eighth inning.
"It's a positive," Mills said of his effort. "But for the most part, it's just great for the team. We need to get things going and I think that's what we're doing right now."
"I was pretty happy with the way I pitched today," Mills said. "I had a good knuckle working today. I was able to throw that in off the plate and had a lot of ground balls to [Owen Ried]. He did a great job over there."
Reid cleanly fielded three of the 10 groundball outs that Mills recorded.
"He did everything well," Cyclones short stop Duncan Izaaks said of Mills. "He threw the ball with heat in the eighth inning, which was pretty impressive. He floated the ball, sunk it, changed it. He did everything pretty well."
After the game, Mills wasn't worried about the earned run. Instead, he was much more willing to give praise to his defense.
"I've been feeling good lately," Mills said. "I think the key has just been execution. Last year, I knew what I needed to do, but I just couldn't execute. That's really the difference this year."
