Friday nights against the angels may have only provided 2 innings but it was a jam-packed 2 innings, the ladies showed the patience in the batter’s box and played tight defence in the field. With only 9 players this week we had to show versatility in the field, Sarah wright did an impressive job of catching in her first game for the tigers while Rebecca bond and Alison hall took over short stop and 2nd. This game had a bit of everything from some fantastic individual efforts in the infield to some awesome catches in the outfield, Kelly Greatrex was in control of centerfield taking a very good running catch to stop the angels from getting up on us.
This week’s batting efforts proved to be the key to winning, having a bit of patience in the box allowed us to control the game. we saw some interesting techniques when it came to batting with Emma Young inventing her own new type of swing which was amazing and provided some humour for us all. On the base paths, the ladies carved up with each scoring a run on their own and stealing at will (pretty sure everyone recorded a stolen base during the game!!!!). Because the game was only 2 innings long it was hard to move players around but this week Em parker came in to relieve Alex on the mound for her first game and provided some solid pitching to finish of the angels.
A week is a long time in baseball but there was a huge improvement in our batting and baserunning skills, this allowed us to fight back against Adelaide after they pulled a head. The girls dug deep, played smart and waited for their pitch to snatch the W away from Adelaide. This game marks our first win for the year, which for some of us is our first win in baseball and for all of us it is our first win together as a team. This is just another positive step forward in the season each week the team continues to get better. With a week of we can rest up and get ready for the purple thunder in a fortnights time
Week three of the season and we welcome the WBL Purple Thunder to the GBC. With the Purple Thunder being one of the leagues strongest hitting line ups we sent Bianca Smith to the hill and asked her to challenge their hitters in the zone and trust her defense. Early in the top of the first the Thunder took advantage of this approach with the first four hitters reaching base on 3 singles and a walk before we were able to shut down this ominous start with some solid defense from Jenny Dunn at shortstop and restricting them to a four run advantage.
Given our chance to hit we took advantage of a wild day from the Thunder’s starter – who whilst possessing a ton of talent was a little wild on the day. Taking advantage of this with 9 walks and 2 hit by pitches in the first inning we pushed across 7 runs and got into their bullpen early.
These types of games can be a real strain to maintain a consistent focus in the field as the innings drag on slowly and with a bitingly cold wind we unfortunately saw some sloppy defensive play when we took the field for the second inning gifting the Thunder 5 unearnt runs in their own 7 run inning and giving back the lead 11 – 7. Bianca continue to throw a lot of strikes and deserved a better outcome however it was very pleasing to see the girls maintain a really positive attitude and support as we came into hit for the bottom of the second.
Again we took a patient approach as our opponents struggled to locate and 6 walks and another two hit by pitches later we had a one run lead and Jenny Dunn at the plate with 2 outs and the bases loaded. Jenny laced one up the middle off the pitchers leg for our first hit of the game and Gemma Cassidy playing her first game for the season followed it up with a single of her own that drove in two. Unfortunately as the 7 inning mercy rule kicked in after the first runner scored, the second run didn’t official count but it was great to see good hitting supported by some quality baserunning nonetheless.
Unfortunately due to the length of each of these innings we had hit the hour and a half mark at the end of the second inning and the game was over. With the unofficial bye round next Friday as we have rescheduled the battle of the bay for later in the season our ladies who started Friday on the bench have an unfortunately long break before their next game action against Gawler on the 17th of November.
Great to see the team enjoying baseball and seeing the rewards for efforts put in during the preseason with a strong 3-0 start to the season. Congratulations to our sisters who also recorded a fantastic win against the Adelaide Angels – Go Bays!
