After a good win last week we set our sights on what we consider to be our most important minor round game, The Blake Horrocks Cup vs Southern Districts. Its a day we look forward to as soon as the draw comes out as a chance to remember and honour Blakes legacy. This day means a lot to not only our squad but to both clubs.
With a massive 6 match ups between the two clubs it was set to be a big day down south as both pitchers settled in early. With Chris Burkholder handling the duties for the bays our hitters set about trying to get something going. Despite getting some runners aboard, some questionable baserunning had us tied at zero until Mason Clavell stepped in with a big bases clearing double to have the good guys up 3-0. Burkholder continued to keep the Hawks at bay as tension started to rise between the teams. After exchanging a few words between teams Mason Clavell again added to the scoreboard care of a solo homerun.
The Hawks would then mount a comeback as some more questionable work by the bays would see a second run trot home for the Hawks. Reaching his limit in the 7th Burkholder would flip the ball to Jayden Eldridge to try and take care of the remaining Hawks outs. After some heads up baserunning from Tyson Arnold the Bays would add an insurance run in the ninth and Jayden would get out of a small jam to record the 5-2 win Congratulations to Mason Clavell on winning the first ever Blake Horrocks MVP medal.
A huge thanks to everyone that made this day a huge success. To Craig, Sarah and the Southern Districts Baseball Club for organizing the day and Steven Deeble for printing the shirts. And to the Horrocks family, thankyou for sharing this day with us and inspiring us to keep this tradition thriving. See you all back down the bay next weekend for some Xmas cheer.
We headed to the home of the hawks for a sad and joyous day in memory of the young man known as Squid.
This was going to be a tough day at the office as the mighty souths juggernaut had not been defeated in 9 minor rounds.
We soon found out why with our first three batters sitting down as quickly as they had gotten up.
Hilly having recovered from his back alignment issues was entrusted with the pill. Right from the first strike out the man meant business as he also went three up three down.
We got back in to swing them and after taking care of Mags and Hayden the big unit Troy faced Wurfel. No sweat said Adam and got our first hit collecting a base hit to right.
Flynn, pumped as he had thrown 4 innings of shutout baseball in div 3 on his birthday, no less kept his awesome day going by smashing a triple in the centre right alley scoring Wurfel from first. Excellent two out hitting.
We got runners on throughout the game with another hit to Adam a double from Aussie playing somewhere new at third but just could not get anyone home.
Hilly was keeping us in it with inning after inning of quality work finishing his outing in the 7th unfortunately I cannot tell you how dominate he was as I forget to photo the score book but let’s guess maybe 2 hits and between 4 and million strike outs. Great work.
Finally the dam would break in the 8th a walk to Witty a base hit to Jacob had runners on with two out. In stepped Sonny who hit a soft liner between first and second. The first baseman could not get a handle on it forcing him to throw wild to the pitcher covering first. This allowed Witty to scamper home.
Mags would then duly smash a double to left bringing home Sonny and Jacob breathing space Bays up 4 nil. Hayden after smashing a long foul homerun shorten it up a little with a base hit to right bringing home Mags. 5 nil
Aussie would move from third to throw allowing one run in his two innings off excellent relief work.
We tacked on another run in the 9th with the birthday boy smashing a double into the same alley as before proceeding to then steal third and score on Witty's excellent single through the gap into right
Bays win 6 – 1
A hell of a game by all on a very special day. It had a final like atmosphere from the first pitch and everyone from one to nine did exactly what was asked and did not give up all game. On the pitching front Hilly superb from inning one till his last in the 7th and Oz, not accustomed to being the closer did a hell of a job book ending the day with a strike out to end the game. Perfect
On the biggest day of the regular season calendar for the club we headed to Southern Districts to prepare for this seasons Blake Horrocks Cup Memorial Day. Whilst the threes don’t play for the cup we had the honour of setting the tone on diamond 1 for the day’s matches.
With a mostly young squad that consists of a lot of talent that will no doubt be participating in the main game in future years a lot of talk pre game was about mindset – attitude and hustle. We were given a gentle start to the game as the young Souths pitcher struggled for command and after a few walks and a couple of hits we started with a nice four run advantage.
Flynn Luders given the start on a day when he could just focus on pitching was fantastic. Flynn was efficient in his four scoreless innings before a rain delay prompted a change giving Will Burke a chance to pitch against his old club and allowing the return of NightHawk into the field after a few weeks absence dealing with KidHawk illnesses – we all hope for some improved fortune for the Hawks (Night variety at least) in the coming weeks.
In all a strong showing – after a few times through the order our at bats when provided with strikes to hit improved and we took the free passes when provided. Defense was solid with only the odd miscue or walks impacting once the ball got a little slippery. Leon Eldridge was big all day behind the dish and at the plate, whilst the highlight of the day had to be Thommo’s drive to right not clearing the fence. After his rain delay singing nobody wanted to see him have more ammunition to carry on about if he’d turned on one for a dinger.
A nice win, as hoped we set the tone and we ended up with the main diamond sweep as the 2s beat the previously undefeated Hawks, and the 1s won a very entertaining match against the strongest Southern Districts squad I’ve seen in years.
One more match up prior to Christmas – as we take on Henley & Grange at home.
With the Blake Horrocks cup up for grabs on the main diamond we made our way out to the back field, and for something very different at South, we had the wind at our back to kick off the ball game.
Given the big day organised by the home team I said g’day to my opposite number at the plate meeting, and the club appointed blue as we discussed the rules of baseball. I possibly should have paid more attention here as I would later learn that sometimes you think a thing is something, but then it turns out that is entirely a different thing than what you thought that thing was….
Play ball was called and Kloeds stepped into the 2 hole and smacked a 1 out single to centre to get the visitors underway. With a sac fly on offer Craig Handy decided 2 was better than 1 and got a line drive up into the jet stream for a 2 run Johnson in the first. Andrew Qualmann followed this up with a double, with Grabroe calling in sick DC took over DH duties for the day and promptly knocked one into RF to get us out to a 3-0 lead in the first.
T Stevens took the pill at the first change and worked a tidy 1-2-3 inning. With big hits to Kloeds and Bender in the 2nd it was out to 5-0 and Stevens would continue to roll through his business.
3 hits from 4 hitters in the top of the 3rd and 2 guys on base, we chased off the Hawks starter as Coach Stats had seen enough and took the pill himself to face Big Dawg Deeble. The Deeblar shot one into right as the coach would score from first and the Bays had an 8-0 lead. Paddy Gluyas was a one man unit at SS in the 5th recording all 3 outs including a highlight reel diving catch. PG also collected a couple of knocks himself in a great all-around game. Kloeds, Carts and Quals hit a late inning bomb each, including one back into the main field to disrupt the showcase game. Stevens finished it off with a couple of punchouts and we recorded a nice road win. 1 game left until the break and we look to carry our good momentum into next week for another road game against some more quality opposition.
Hats off to the Southern District Baseball Club who put on a fantastic day to help us remember our little brother Squid. Awesome to see his family and friends out there and a great battle in the 1s befitting of the day. Even though my guys are past being a part of the main game, this is one of the most important days on the fixture for us all, being a part of this day and paying tribute to lips is a highlight of the season. Squid still remains as always, our cheeky little sh!t of a younger brother, miss you bro.
The final leg of the Snakes Alive’s amazing race took us to the home of the Down South Playaz to take on the Peregrine FalconHawks. Due to a packed program, we were relegated to Diamond Two, which had a surprisingly reasonable infield but unfortunately an outfield boundary of witch’s hats that seemed to be at a distance more suited to peewee baseball.
Cookie Man got proceedings underway in the rain as the good guys had first use of the sticks. Things started pretty well with a V-Dub walk and a Fenomenon single getting the Brett ball rolling. The Krajinator smashed a skidding double that would have scored two on a regular diamond, however the ground rule cone head fence restricted us to just the one. We unfortunately left 2nd and 3rd occupied without troubling legendary scorer Mad Dog and his opposite number, backwards Boritto offspring.
The FalconHawks came out swinging with a leadoff double followed by a pop up that, in a preview of things to come, ended in two of our massive studly men colliding and the pill on the deck… three more hits later and we found ourselves 3-1 down after one. This became 5-1 after the second and things were looking less than savoury for the Snakes Alives.
Just as we needed to, the boys pushed hard in the third with a walk to the Boston’s finest followed by a bean ball to unstoppable hitting machine. Big Kraj then smashed a cone clearer to bring the score back to 5-4 and it looked like the game was once again afoot. At least until the boys in Navy and Orange piled on four more to stretch it out to 9-4 after 3.
The 4th saw Ben-In-TENT-E knock his second hit for the day, which was followed by a Borrito double through the cones. V-Dub knocked in Benny Banassi, Fendog reached on an error then the great man smashed one to deeeep right. As USM headed around the bases to score three, he was sent back to second as the Brett pill apparently did not clear the imaginary arc between the cones. Instead of 9-8, we found ourselves down 9-6 at the end of the inning.
Borrito flipped the pill to the Slice who did a sensational job in keeping the FalconHawks scoreless for the remainder of proceedings, giving us a chance to steal the win if we were good enough. Despite USM leaving no doubt in clearing the orange home run hats this time, we fell short, going down 9-8 in a heartbreaker. When all is said and done, the home team deserved the “W”, and it was a couple of uncharacteristic miscues in the field from our boys that gave away two very important runs.
Hats off to all the GBC players, families and friends that supported a wonderful day in memory of our Squid, you are a credit to a great club that I am proud to be a part of. Cheers also to Souths for hosting and being part of a great day.