With the race on for a finals berth this was a crucial game for us. Wes Roemer took the hill and after giving up a run in each of the first 2 innings settled down nicely to pitched the complete game victory.
Down 2-1 in the top of the 5th inning Max Brown came up huge with a 2-run shot to give us the lead. We then tacked on an insurance run in the 7th inning thanks to another Max Brown rbi double.
After last weeks nightmarish start, Hayden McGearey took the ball for us again and was fantastic firing 6 innings and allowing only the 1 run.
Offensively we jumped out of the gate with no one doing more damage than Max brown who added another 2 x 2-run homers to give him 3 home runs for the day.
Mason Clavell did a fantastic job both behind the dish catching both games, whilst also picking up a rbi single on the offensive side.
With a win clinching a finals berth we hit the scoreboard early notching 4 runs in the first inning with the highlight being a Terrell Joyce 2-run single.
We then tacked on anther 4 runs in the 3rd inning and 3 more in the fifth, with Terrell hitting a 2-run moonshot that still hasn’t landed yet.
Aside from hitting the cover off the ball, Joyce also took the bump for us in this encounter and was fantastic through 4 innings, before being relieved by Tim Day who closed out the 5-inning run rule victory.
With this win we have clinched a finals berth and we now look ahead to this weekends encounter vs West Torrens as we look to exact some revenge on the hurting they put on us a week earlier.
This week we might just skip over the first two innings….all you need to know is we couldn’t get an out and they scored 12. From here things really picked up for us. Defensively we held them scoreless for the remainder of the game. Offensively we staged an epic comeback, coming up just short of a W.
There was no panic or self-implosion as we stared down a 12 run chase. One through nine had great, patient at bats, capitalising on mistakes and driving runs in. We had a couple of opportunities to take the lead in either of the last two frames as we had plenty of runners on, unfortunately we couldn’t get the job done.
Disappointing start to the game, but great to see everyone stick together and show some fight.
One game to go in the minor round, a must win if we want to finish top three.
The Big Dawg bites off almost more than he can chew, almost.
Playing the reigning premiers in a game they had to win to get a playoff berth, our aim was simple, send em home early. Jayden Eldridge took the pill and got off to another quality start for us on the hill. With Luke Thompson taking over lead off duties The Big Dawg Deeble had one simple demand, give me the 4 hole. This would later prove to be an error in judgement from the coach, as the white hot Deebs failed to really bark as the clean-up guy.
We welcomed back Jordan Bails, after loading up the SPF30+ with his first sighting of the sun in a couple of months, he slotted straight back in and got a couple of knocks with the bat. Our big hits came with the base loaded, Craig Teakle hitting a 2 run double followed by a 2 run single to Alex Marsh, to plate 4 runs and give us a buffer heading into the later innings.
Jayden went through 5 for us and handed the ball over to Lachy Eldridge, his 2 innings of work were very nice. Tristan Stevens finishing em off with 2 innings of his own work to get the save and get a taste of satisfaction, sending home a solid rival and closing the door on the game and the regular season.
This was a great lead up into playoff baseball and we have put ourselves into a good position to have a crack at going one better.
Good luck to all the senior teams heading into finals action next week.
Needing a win to maintain second spot, the Al Gores took on the visiting Senators of Woodville. Some home cooking was on the menu as the boys returned from a marathon road trip that produced mixed results. Coach Boris called on the Zooterman to piff the pill, giving workhorse Kymbo Slice a week off to work on his tan at third base.
Having endured some tough games since the xmas break, the plan was to bust out early and enjoy a leisurely day in the sun. Alas, it was not to be. A couple of walks and a couple of chinkers later, we found ourselves down 0-3 after a half.
The rest of the game was pretty much like a trip to the dentist- painful and ugly. There were positives – our defense was solid, there was strong hitting from the Fenomenon, Zooterman and Killer and the Krajinator busted some David Copperfieldesque illusions in relief – at one stage I’m pretty sure he piffed the pill at MINUS 7 mph…
With a 4-3 lead and time running out, Zooter decided he was thirsty so he hid the ball on Diamond three, the result being the umpire had seen enough as he called an end to the pedestrian contest.
The day’s proceedings were pretty much summed up by the coaches post-game shower – as I was loofahing in the shower Mrs. Smailes style, my towel fell off the GBC hook - landing on Killer’s beer – resulting in said beer pouring all over the coaches jocks that were taken down by the errant towel…
The excellent news is we managed to finish second, and we certainly haven’t used up any great performances in recent weeks, which by my calculations means there is plenty of good stuff to come in the next few weeks.
All the best to all fellow GBC’ers who head into battle in Finals Week one – the most fun time of the baseball year – may your bats be as hot as Elle McPherson on the cover of the 1988 Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition….
We came up against the 2nd position sitting H&G, we knew this was going to be a tough game and with H&G wanting to lock in 2nd spot they started with Dom Hodges on the mound.
We came out firing scoring 5 runs in the first two innings and found ourselves with the scores tied in the 5th at 5 a pieces. This is where we managed switch the bats on to plate two off the back of hits to Darren Bromley, Justin Oliver & Darren Mead, we were unlucky not to score more when Tim Swansson sent a laser beam down the line with H&G just getting his glove to it to end the innings with a quick double play.
Matt Holmes had his best start of the season with 8 strike outs giving up only 5 runs, one walk and 9 hits though 6 ¼ innings where he reached his pitch limit with one out in the 7th, young Jackson Pallot came into the game and got the job done closing it out for the save.
Multiple hits by Wilson, Bromley & Mead with clutch hits being collected by Kingston, Stojani, Oliver & Swansson.
Thanks to this solid, well fought out coupled with a bit of luck from the baseball gods we have finished 3rd gaining a home elimination final.
We are looking forward to playing a home final alongside the several other Glenelg teams that have earned the right to play home finals at the mighty GBC.
All that matters now is winning the next three games.
It's show time.
Leon started and used it as a fittest having missed last week due his second honey moon with his lovely wify (please Jono don’t spell check wify),any way got it done then Marty manager to hold on for the win first time in two weeks ha ha, my attempt at honour!
Fielding solid and bats strong all ready to go, All fit for our first final who ever it is
See you all this weekend
After a season of highlights and lowlights, we fell 2 games short of a top 6 spot but were competitive right to the end. Our forfeit to ensure Div 6 had a game and narrow losses to Sturt, Souths, Glenelg, and a stacked Gawler, plus the heat out, made it hard for us as a new team to gel each week. Highlights were our batting across the season, and beating East Torrens and Flinders - when we were on-song, it was a pleasure to behold. So this report will be a bit longer than normal as it is our last for 2017.
Our final game against Kensington was the third time we played them this season and we knew they were beatable. We enlisted some help from Div 6 in case we started to struggle and with the return of ‘Ringo’ from his holiday in Canada to strengthen our batting and fielding line-up, went into this game confident we could finish the season strongly. With the premiership table not updated, we didn’t actually know where we sat, so it was a “win and give ourselves the best chance” day.
Resting Pottsy who was sore from his outing in the Showdown last week, HP started on the mound. After walking 4 and being 5 runs down part way through the opening innings, I had to get the hook out to minimise the damage and give ourselves a chance to bat out of trouble. I came in to throw BP and we held them scoreless for the next 4 innings.
In the meantime the bats were on again..!! No runs in the 1st but then 4 innings of 4, 7, 7 and 6 set us up for the win. Foletti came on to close out the last innings, giving up 2 but we were well ahead by then having secured an unassailable lead.
Some great performances on the day:
Runs: 5 – Blake; 4 – Hiphoppapotamus; 3 – Takos, Luke, Stix; 2 – Pottsy, Tom, HP; 1 – Jordan, Foletti
Good luck to every other GBC team who are all in finals.. we’ll be out there supporting.
So for 2017... Stix – out.