CRICKET: Sunshine Coast coach Ashley Holznagel says it took plenty of heart and spirit for the Scorchers to bat their way back to solid ground during the season's first two-day clash.

The Buderim-based outfit managed to battle their way to a total of 303 on Saturday against Sandgate-Redcliffe in the first day's play in the opening round of the longer format.

It wasn't easy though, with a strong start quickly rocked by a spate of wickets.

However, solid knocks from Angus Lovell (93 off 201 balls), Blake Maher (55 off 58 balls), Josh Tyson (52 off 59 balls) and Sam Gardiner (20 off 98 balls) kept the Scorchers ticking along.

It's provided Holznagel some optimism heading into the second day's play.

"It's given us a good opportunity next week to go out and compete," he said.

"I thought the blokes really showed some good ticker to hang in there and get us up to 303 because I think we were 2/80 then all of a sudden we were about 5/100 and it wasn't looking too good.

"But Sammy Gardiner and Angus Lovell got us through that next session no wickets down and just gave us a chance to try and get a decent total at the end.

"We're still in the contest which is a big battle and we showed good spirit to get back and fight for that 303 total."

He looked forward to unleashing his bowlers in the second day's play this weekend.

"We just need to get out there, execute and really make it difficult for them to score (this weekend) and take our chances.

"That'll give us a chance if we can compete hard."

SCORECARD

Queensland Premier Cricket - Bulls Masters First Grade Competition

Round 4 - Sat 28 Sep 2019.

Two-day match.

Sunshine Coast v Sandgate Redcliffe

1ST INNINGS - SUNSHINE COAST

AA Day b LJ Aspin 7 (10)

A Lovell c L Porter b BE Street 93 (201)

DL Dyer b LJ Aspin 0 (2)

BE Maher lbw b L Porter 55 (58)

*P Dein c CR Barsby b MJ Swepson 4 (6)

JJ Matthews c C Hemphrey b MJ Swepson 1 (6)

ST Gardiner lbw b JJ Connolly 20 (98)

+JB Turnbull lbw b MJ Swepson 31 (47)

JL Tyson c CR Barsby b M Bunker 52 (59)

T Olsen b MJ Swepson 10 (37)

AF Renouf not out 15 (16)

Extras 15

Total 303

Overs 90

FOW: 9 (AA Day) 11 (DL Dyer) 99 (BE Maher) 103 (P Dein) 105 (JJ Matthews) 180 (ST Gardiner) 186 (A Lovell) 256 (JB Turnbull) 276 (JL Tyson) 303 (T Olsen)

BOWLING: LJ Aspin 2-63, M Bunker 1-41, L Porter 1-56, B Street 1-22, M Swepson 4-58, J Connolly 1-51.