Baseball can be a cruel game sometimes, and this was evidently the case on the weekend.
With one out remaining victory was snatched from us at the last second. Hayden McGearey made the start for us and was absolutely dominant the whole game putting up donuts through the first 8 innings. We managed to scored a lone run in the 6th inning with some clutch 2 out hitting and held this lead right up until the last out.
To begin the ninth innings Goodwoods leadoff hitter luckily got on base through a swinging bunt. He was promptly bunted to second then moved to third on a groundout to 2b. With 2-outs and the tying run on 3rd, Cresswell came through with a clutch hit to tie up the game. The real blow then came when Wigmore hit a two-run home run to give the visitors a 2-run lead.
To the boys credit they fought back in the bottom of the ninth. Ziersch led of with a walk, and handy and Bishop each collected singles to score a run and move the tying run to third and winning run to second. Unfortunately this would be as close as we would get as the final out was recorded.
Goodwood has had our measure this season and three tough 1-run losses to them should only fuel the boys to get better and hold onto this playoff spot as it is a real dog fight between 8 teams at the top of the ladder at the moment.
This Wednesday we play a crucial must win game against ET at our home away from home West Beach.
We drew. Again.
Four times now. FML.
The big dawg is back in town.
Playing another finals contender we packed the gear up and headed to Mortlock Park. We got off to a good start following a big dawg Deeble leadoff single and plated one run in the first to take a 1-0 lead. Alec Steff took the pill and jumped on the freshly renovated mount to start things off for the bays, getting through the first unscathed. We dropped in another run to get out to a 2-0 margin. The Indian hitters refused to go away, and after a bit of red pen appeared, they had jumped the good guys and held onto a 3-2 lead. With Steff running into a little trouble with 2 out and a couple of guys on base, I made the move to the pen and flipped the ball to Gamer Eldridge to do his thing, battling through and getting a huge strike out. With a runners on Craig Teakle pinch hit and got a 2 out single to give us the lead and boys didn’t look back. Shutting out the Indian hitters in the bottom half of the inning and then putting on another 4 runs thanks to hits to Thompson, Kloeden and Clavell. Mark Reynolds was great in the field, his slick D helping us close out the game in the late frames. Gamer notched up his longest outing and made sure we could chalk up one more W. Each game is getting bigger than the last right now, so we will hope to continue to swing the bat well, and have fun along the way.
The Al Gore’s second game after the break was always going to be a tough contest as we took on the reigning premier Goodwood Indians at the reservation. With Killer being unavailable due to Baby Got Back Spasms, coach Boris called on the Krajinator to blow the dust off his catching gear and don the tools of ignorance in what turned out to be a classic contest.
BA, chock full of confidence with his batjocks on, led things off with a single to left. Unfortunately that was all for the good guys as Kymbo Slice prepared to piff the pill against the strong Goody lineup. The big guy laboured a little through the first as the home team drew first blood for a 1-0 lead after one.
The good guys tied things up in the third as BA reached on error, stole second and was advanced to third by the Freezer. The Fenomenon then knocked a pretty sac fly for a white guy and it was all square at 1-1. Kymbo started to look the goods as he loosened up the reigns but he couldn’t stop the Goody lads from once again taking the lead at 2-1 after three.
The game remained as tight as Scarlett Johansson’s tracky in “The Island” into the 6th when a Kymbo walk had us up and about. Patty-G smashed a double to set up 1st and 3rd before a liner as straight as one of his curtain rails from V-Dub was too hot for the first baseguy. After six, the score was 2-2.
The score remained 2-2 into the 8th with time running out. With two down and none on, Patty-G reached on error as his hammies thankfully remained intact. With no chance to steal second, Boris called on speed specialist Alex “Death Machine” Marsh to get things done. The machine stole second, setting things up for V-Dub to change the score. A liner to right saw the Death Machine scream home and the Tiges led 3-2 with three outs to get.
Needing stellar defense and with Kymbo out of bullets, the Krajinator took the pill as Boris called on Ozzie Smith clone BA to take over at second as Cardinal Jaikob assumed catching duties. Luke Thomo trotted out to right, Marshy at third and we strapped ourselves in. Despite a very long foul that had hearts jumping, the Krajinator mixed in some slow stuff with some even slower stuff and the Al Gores prevailed 3-2 in a high standard cracker.
This week we came up against the 5th place Kensington, we knew that it wasn’t going to be an easy game given they had been competitive against the top sides earlier on in the season.
They started a pitcher we hadn’t seen before and he would have been one of the better pitchers we have faced this season so far.
Darren Mead got the start on the mound and was solid through 4 innings.
Dave Jucha picked up two crucial RBI’s in the 3rd to put us 4-3 up with Kensington responding with two runs to take a 5-4 lead into the 5th.
Matt Holmes took hold of the pill in the 5th and quickly got us 3 up 3 down with 3 strike straight outs. In the 6th Justin Oliver & Darren Mead collected back to back singles and Tim Swansson collect a well fought out walk to load the bases, with Oliver & Mead displaying wheels I never knew they had with both getting dirty crossing the plate we managed to collect two runs on two consecutive wild pitches, to add to the pitchers pressure Swansson managed to score on yet another wild pitch with a jumping slide around the catcher while reaching back ensuring his fingers crossed the plate and avoiding the tag. Paul Stojani then complemented our good wild pitch hustle with a line drive to centerfield brining the score to 7-5 Glenelg’s way.
Holmes fired up once again with yet another K2 a 6-3 then a K2 to end the ball game.
Special mention to Jono Kingston who plucked a super impressive running catch deep at centre left which impressed Kensington’s Import player umpiring enough to give him a vote.
A well fought battle which now sees us 1.5 games clear in 4th spot.
Welcoming back Dr Bob and Big Daddy Ekburg we got out the gates early and put runs on the board almost every inning. While there were a number of runners stranded which kept our runs lower than they should have been, everyone was getting bat to ball, except Foletti. With Bradey on the mound the opposition were having difficulty getting on base and with no errors in the field they had difficulty scoring.
As the game progressed, it started to look like we were in the Twilight Zone with Bradey running to get a stand up triple and Sanga getting his first extra base hit for the season.
Big Daddy Ekburg showed that not playing or training for 4 weeks putting on a batting display and joining the home run club with an in the parker. Hague got back his form getting hit by pitches and Dr Bob proved that a torn meniscus is a great way to speed up your running game.
Fines Summary:
Foletti X 2 – Backwards K, Forgot Helmet
Oborn X 1 – Forgot Belt
Bradey X 2 – LOB after a leadoff triple and multiple opportunities to score
Underwood X 2 – Bruised Left Testicle
We won another close contest which is very pleasing .We started Leon and he pitched the whole game very confidently, they had some very good hitting he worked through them one at a time and came out on top another very good effort by him ,good to have him on our team
Defensively not too bad I think we can still field a little better it will come with work, having Flynn run down anything hit to the outfield helps a lot. Kristen Mundy caught very well and could have thrown a few runners out good effort.
We always seem to score enough runs, all contributed with the bats, Leo again came up hit a hard hit ball to left field, Troy (gamer) hit 2 ball hard as well please both keep it up well done.
We are all having fun so let’s keep it rolling.
This week Glenelg’s Div 7 took on a young Adelaide team on Glenelg’s main diamond, a rare treat for the Div 7 side.
Adelaide continue to fight for a finals birth, so a close game was expected.
With four changes from our previous week’s side, a common weekly occurrence for this team, we welcomed the assistance of Matt Foletti and Nick O’Bourne into our starting nine.
David Mitchell was again our starter, throwing a solid 5 innings at a 78% strike rate - giving up just six hits and one run. Marty Beyer came on to throw 17 pitches in the last dig, giving up two unearned runs as a few errors were made by our defence.
I’m sure Matt Foletti was grateful for the quality of pitching we produced, making his efforts behind the plate (with a fielder’s mit) easier. Maybe it’s time for GBC to invest in a catcher’s glove for the lefties! Others would say never catch a leftie.
After a scoreless first innings by Glenelg, a regular feature but not part of our game plan, quality at bats were a highlight. We posted scores of 6, 2, 7 & 3 through to the end of the fifth – with many runs scored with two outs.
We racked up sixteen hits in total for the game, as Adelaide shared the pitching duties amongst four players in an effort to minimise the damage.
Hits to Northam (3), Foletti (3), O’Bourne (2), Pick (2), Beyer (2), McIntosh (2), Ceglar (1 hit & 3 walks) & Mitchell (1).
Thanks To Matt, Nick and Peter Hague (our designated runner who played short stop in the last and produced a great double play to end the game) for their support in a week that our playing stocks were very short.
After the disappointment of last week, the Div 7 Tigers were ready to exact revenge on whoever stepped in their way... With Andrew “Pottsy” Potter putting his hand up to piff against the old team, we arranged for the soon-to-be-made-officially-second-slowest runner in the Div 6/7 crew, Sanga, to sit as reserve in case Pottsy’s slop failed to deliver... and with the other Div 7 team hoping we could give them a clear break over Flinders at the top of the table, we were only too happy to try and do the “club thing”...
Through 4 innings we could only score 1 run thanks to a walk. The “gun Flinders pitcher” walked 3 and allowed 5 hits in the first 4 innings but again our inexperience at base running and executing the more complex plays was our downfall. Heading into the 5th we were 5-1 down and looking to another loss to destroy any hope of a finals berth. I was on the bench thinking how much this Div 7 coaching gig would be just like being Donald Trump’s social media secretary... frustrating as hell....!!
But then the bats lit up...
After scoring the only run in the first 4 innings, Stephen “Harry” Harris stepped up with a hit to centre, coming home after a wild pitch and an error in the field. It was then an onslaught of hits for the next 3 innings.
When Sean “Miss Moneypenny” Halfpenny tied the score in the 5th, I would have been satisfied to scramble for a draw but hadn’t considered the “Sanga factor” in the outcome. Waddling out to the mound, his warm up consisted of peeling numerous balls against the backstop over the catcher’s head... all I could think of was Donald Trump....
So after he shut them out, Sanga was the key to our comeback and eventual giant-killing win. Through 3 innings, he struck out 8 batters, walked none, only allowed 3 hits, and kept them scoreless while we were able to pile on a further 8 runs. With their pitcher hitting his pitch count in the 7th, when I asked Pottsy who their closer/relief would be, he said “Me”, so I knew we were in a good spot...
Great right field catch to Adam “Adsy” Bartlett at the death knell, and a handy 3 RBI’s to Ally Hall. Still disappointing to leave so many runners on base and all of Flinders’ runs were scored off errors. Batting improved as the game went on, with 3 runs to Tom and Harry (pity we don’t have a Richard in the team), 2 to Luke and HP, and 1 each to Pottsy, Sanga and Adsy.
Still sitting one game out of the Top 6 so every game counts from hereon.
