Our first Tuesday night game against a determined Henley & Grange squad that was going hard at us with their import pitcher ended up being a great comeback fro our boys.
Chris Burkholder was strong all night on the mound for us throwing six innings.
We were down for most the game but in the last innings the boys put some fantastic at bats together to pull a fantastic victory off.
No real shining lights but an at bat by Mason Clavell in the last innings really shows we are heading in the right direction.
Our youth are really striving with their opportunity they have been given.
Sunday we were at West Torrens for another big clash with one of the heavyweights of the competition.
It was a sea sawing battle all day with our pitching staff really keeping us in the game.
Led by the big Matt Williams the boys dig a fantastic job on the hill and really made a great lineup look quite average.
Again our hitters had some really good at bats all day facing another good pitching lineup from the opposition.
Our boys really stuck to their guns and put in a great performance.
Ales Loy needs a mention for s game leading RBI that really put us on the front foot for the win in the seventh then big boy Bishop came through with another crushing blow that really put us in good stead.
Once on top there was no turning back with Chris (Donny Burke) Burkholder once again putting in a great performance on the hill with a great double play that really shut the door.
Fantastic week for our squad with many boys getting game time and giving us a massive headache at the selection table.
It's a great headache to have.
With the most important game of the season coming up our boys are really starting to fire on all cylinders.
Let's keep rolling.
Round 5 and we took on reigning premiers West Torrens, keen for some much needed retribution. With Hayden back on the mound for the first time this season and Connor back down from the 1's we were expecting nothing less than a W.
We were slow to get going, going scoreless through the first 3 innings. When in the field, we weren't the finely tuned defence we have seen over the last few weeks and a couple of cheap hits saw the Eagles take an early strong lead 7-0 going into the fourth.
After a quick rev up, the bats finally woke and we managed to bat through the line-up and score nine. Unfortunately that's as good as it got. West Torrens fought back and tied it going into the last, then rubbed salt into the wound with a walk off double.
A disappointing result, but proof we need to play more than one inning of baseball if we expect to win
Getting Witty with it.
Coming off the back of a disappointing draw, we hosted the undefeated Eagles of Lockleys. Tristan Stevens took the pill in his first start, 2 Ks to start the game had us off to a good start. A brain fart moment from the Big Dawg Deeble on a 1 out first and third stalled us a bit and saw the 1st end 0-0. The red pen came out in the 2nd and we found ourselves giving up 1 unearned to try and chase down. Craig Handy got things started in the 4th with a lead off double and Craig Teakle continued to get another bit hit, driving in our first to tie it 1-1.
Stevens turned the seed over to Jayden Eldridge who gave up a 3-0 base hit to the former SA vice captain Johan Botha, but he would have his own moment forgetting it wasn't tippy-go-run on a fly ball to right to be doubled off at 2B and see a mini Eagle uprising halted.
The Eagles scored 2 in the 7th with a 2 out blooper driving in 1, followed by a pass ball and a wild pitch to see the score at 3-1. Nothing would be added in the 8th and The Bays had their last chance to stand up.
Back to back singles to start it from Marshy and Shawby followed by a line drive out and then a Jamie Kloeden double to get it back to 3-2. With 1 out and first empty we saw our first free pass issued to Steak Teakle to load them up for Alex Witty. A line drive single to left from Witty tied it up at 3-3 and Jamie Kloeden learnt a valuable lesson trying to score the winning run - don't mess with the Johan - gunned down at the plate by the big basher in left. Jacob Eldridge has his best AB of the day, eventually drawing a walk to load em up. The new guy Anders Lindberg hitting in the coaches spot would draw the unusual walk off walk and see the bays get out of jail 4-3.
Not the prettiest game, but we sure will take the W. A decent game across the board, we will look to sharpen up our D for a big few games ahead.
Coming up against a team that knocked us out of the finals last season, the boys were looking for some home cooking to get us over the line for hopefully our 4th win on the trot. After an excellent outing in the previous week, Matty “Sherlock” Holmes was given starting duties, while some late shuffling in the field was required with No. 28 on your menu sizzling Steak getting the call up to Justin Timberhouse’s “Speccy Macgees”. A quick call to Seattle had the desired effect and Adelaide Bite intern Anders (Scandanavian for “manly”) Lindberg took his place at rightfield. With the Glenelg “Snakes Alives” having a bye, Tim “Son of Swan” put his hand up for bench duties and was duly joined by the legendary Death Machine himself, chicken legs Marsh.
The Holmesdawg gave up a leadoff single before settling down to retire the next three and send the Eagle Boys down with a zero like their pizza producing namesakes. The good guys picked up hits to the Fenomenon and the Krajinator but failed to invoke HSR’s circle colouring skills as the score remained 0-0.
The Eags went scoreless through two before our boys got busy. A leadoff walk to Vdub was followed by back-to-back one out doubles to Seattle Anders and bespectacled Boris to get the party started. Killer knocked a single and the good guys held a 2-0 lead after two.
Holmesy thanked the boys for their lead and proceeded to mix in some nasty K’s with a solid helping of grounders and a dash of fly balls to keep the Eags off balance. Feno, Big Kraj and Vdub continued the hit parade in the third while “Colonel” Anders used more secret herbs and spices to single in another run.
The Tiges continued to dictate terms in this one, and despite a couple of late runs off reliever Kymbo Slice, controlled the Eags with some nice late cameos from Son of Swan who battled a long at bat for a single, and the Death Machine who reached base to finish this one and send the boys for some tasty Coopers in the Peter Dixon Dugout.
All in all a disciplined 7-2 win from the Al Gores, punctuated by another very good start from Sherlock Holmes and a Finger Lickin’ Good debut from the Colonel.
Back on our home dung hill we faced the relatively unknown Dodgers of Golden Grove line-up. With Sanga on the hill to start the game, we found out pretty quickly they'd be a forced to be reckoned with as they put up a 4 spot to start the game. The Tiges responded with our best offensive innings for the game going through the line-up to knock in 5 and wrestle back the lead. After a 9 run first innings, the runs dried up for both teams, but we went into the last innings 7-6 up. The Dodgers wrangled together 3 runs to take a two run lead, and we had the job ahead of us. Thommo started us of with a lead of double, followed by a hit to Squid Lips and we managed to get two across the plate for our second draw of the year.
After a shaky first innings, Sanga was frugal on the hill as usual, backed up well by Bradey in relief. Brother Dixon was the pick of the hitters with 3 knocks.
Peter Hague started had a little trouble finding the strike zone and there found some gaps in our field, so we came to bat 5 nil down no fault to Peter. Just the way it goes some time, I come in and Paul closed, just got to far behind and hard to pick up
Hitting started slow but got better as game went along .
We all made too many errors so it is hard to win when you hand the opposition runs
Hopefully get back on track this coming week
Season Update so far…
5 rounds down and we are without a win. Each week we improve but each week we don’t improve enough to beat the opposition.
Round 1: Lost to Sturt 6-3
Round 2: Lost to Angels 17-6
Round 3: Lost to Adelaide 14-9
Round 4: Lost to West Torrens 13-7
This week we were outgunned but still managed to get hits, get on base, and show improvement. Like a true Div 6 side we often know what to do but fail to execute in a game situation. A combination of dropped catches, missed throws, and ‘awkward’ base running, all contributed to the result.
This week we have the Div 6 Showdown as a curtain raiser to the Div 5 Showdown so hopefully we can put up a competitive effort and continue to improve.
