The Canberra Cavalry have shed ties with starting pitcher Dushan Ruzic, in a ruthless reaction to their slow start to the Australian Baseball League season.
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Ruzic has been released from his contract effective immediately, having started four games with an ERA of 10.20 in his short tenure with the club.
It comes after the Cavalry suffered their sixth straight loss and third straight series defeat to the Sydney Blue Sox on Saturday. Canberra now sits fourth on the northeast ladder, with five wins and 11 losses.
Cavalry's recruitment team assessed the club's performance and determined to replace Ruzic with Australian pitcher Steve Kent in the starting rotation.
Kent comes out of the bullpen to join JJ Hoover, Philip Pfiefer and Kosuke Sakaguchi in the rotation, a move Cavalry boss Donn McMichael has attributed to the release of Ruzic.
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"It wasn't because [Ruzic] was ineffective, it was because we decided to go with Steven Kent as our starting pitcher," McMichael said.
"It was a very hard decision to make because Dushan is a very good guy and got on very well with the rest of the team, but it was a matter of us determining what our best options were.
"He was excess to what we had, particularly in light of the fact we had Steve Kent sitting there and not doing as much work as we'd like him to.
"Kent is arguably one of the best two pitchers in Australia and is certainly the best pitcher Canberra has ever produced. So we decided to bring him out of the bull-pen and start with him, it's just how it worked out."
Canberra will carry one less player on their roster for the upcoming series against the Brisbane Bandits at Narrabundah Ballpark this week.
The Cavalry have not offered Ruzic a position in the bullpen, allowing the 37-year-old to explore alternative options with other clubs.
"We'd like to thank Dushan for his efforts this year for the Cavalry and wish him all the best for the future," McMichael said.
"We still believe we're very much still in this championship. We've had a poor start so far but we're very much alive within the championship race."