Having already clinched a finals berth we were looking to move up the ladder in our final game of the season against 4th placed West Torrens.
Unfortunately things did not go our way, and its on days like this that you must tip your cap to their pitcher who threw a fantastic game, all but going the complete distance.
Wes Roemer took the hill for us and was terrific. He allowed a solo homerun in the first inning then shut their bats down throwing 6 innings for the lone run. Greg Mosel relieved Wes and unfortunately things did not go his way with a few miscues defensively exasperated the problem.
The finals score was not indicative of how close this game really was.
This weekend we head up the hill to face the always challenging Kensington cardinals on their home soil in a best of 3-game series. It is shaping up to be a fantastic series and we look forward to seeing as many familiar faces as possible cheering the boys across the line. We will relish the underdog status in this encounter and promise to leave it all on the field knowing this is an elimination final for us.
We lost again. Third one in a row we should have won.
Take on Adelaide in first week of finals. Won't be losing this one.
The Big Dawg goes for a walk.
After another long season we were eager to get into the real stuff. I gave the ball to Jayden Eldridge and he retired the Angels hitters in the 1st. Corey Williams took over the leadoff spot with the Big Dawg gone bush and smashed a single to get us started. With 1 out and runners on 2nd and 3rd Ben Clavell got a knock to drive in our first run, but sadly that’s where his day was done. Jordan Bails drove in our 2nd run and we jumped out to a 2-0 lead.
The Angels did the bulk of their damage in the 3rd, posting a 6 spot on the back of some uncharacteristic errors from our guys. Trailing 6-2 we loaded the bases with 1 out, but the opposition got a big couple of outs to end our threat. After leaking 3 more runs in the 4th, suddenly 9-2 was a bigger ask.
We tacked on a few runs over the next few innings, but couldn’t manage to get that big blow with runners on.
Lachy Eldridge and Stevens were awesome in relief, combining for 5 shutout innings.
The good news is we had the double chance up our sleeve and are through to another prelim final, where we will face another strong opponent down South. Its just another game that we need to get ourselves up for and bring our A game this time.
A dirty day at the ballpark saw us not only go down heavily to the Eagles, but sent us out of the finals as top team Goodwood also went down at the reservation.
I want to thank the boys for once again making my Saturday afternoons a joy, the Al Gores are a fantastic bunch of guys (and girls - HSR you champion) and I am blessed to share the field with them every week.
I also want to wish all of our GBC brothers who remain in the hunt all the best for the rest of the finals, I love this club dearly and we deserve more flags!
Until next time Boris is OUT!
Playing the dangerous East Torrens side who had only lost one game since the break, we got off to a great start getting up 4 runs in the first. Bradey started on the mound for us and gave us a solid start. We were able to put on another 2 and maintain our lead before Sanga came in to close.
With the game now 6-5 and the fastest pitcher we faced all year on the mound, the team put on a 4 run rally making the score 10-5. With East Torrens trying to come back, they made some poor mistakes when on base and we were able to shut them down without any further runs being scored.
Solid offence was shown by Oborn who ran the bases like a seasoned veteran and got some valuable hits.
A special thanks goes out to Stix and Tom Burton giving us valuable support on the bench.
An honourable mention goes out to Hague and Foletti for a double steal.
This week we have Southern Districts at home.
Fines Summary:
Chappel Backwards K
Ekberg Backwards K
Leon again was outstanding he is pitching extremely well, Kristen behind the dish called him well. He minimised their bats and kept the run against down we probably didn’t support him well in the field, and as a team we need to get better defensively, a conscious effort needs to happen this week on the track, onwards and upwards in that department
There was some good efforts with the bat, Paul luders was the stand out and the rest of us did what we had to do so all well done
The win kept us alive and a good result ,the big work needs to be done next week and I am confident we can do it, please keep it up and let’s get to the grand final.
It’s all been so much fun I want to keep it rolling as I am sure we all do
Having finished on top of the ladder we earned the right to be playing in the preliminary final no matter what the result of this game.
As it turned out the double chance was a invaluable.
Despite missing players for various reasons we still had a line up capable of competing and getting a positive result for the Club.
Unfortunately is was evident very early in the game that we were in for a long afternoon. The longer the game went resulted in a team performance that was well below the standard we have played at for the majority of the season.
Adelaide made us pay continually for our mistakes and we just couldn't get it together in the batters box on a consistent basis.
The final score was irrelevant - it was the way we played that was disappointing.
This week our performance as a group will need to be at a much higher level if we are to make the grand final for a third year in succession.
Whilst we will welcome back a couple of players only a solid team contribution will be acceptable and, if this happens, the final result will take care of itself.
