Well we are at approximately a third of the way through the senior season and the Glenelg Baseball Club is proving to be a consistent competitive force once again. We have 10 teams in 9 different divisions this season with 90% of our teams inside the top 6 or 4 at this early point of the season. Early wins have help set up a real opportunity for finals baseball this season which keeps adding to the excitement of this season.
Before a quick update on our teams a massive thanks to Taylor McGearey and Jojo Papadothomakos who coordinated another successful Ladies Day on the weekend. Thanks to Peter McGearey, Peter Arnold, Paul Luders, Mason Clavell, Joe Gluyas for putting in some significant help in the set up before the ladies did their magic – for those who assisted with pack down many thanks I had to leave early so I cannot name you all here sorry.
Gamer and Zeddy continue to develop their young charges for consistent success – a hard fought win on ladies on the weekend while absent our Tuatara ABL stars keeping the strong crowd entertained.
Please keep in mind Saturday December 8th is the Annual Blake Horrocks Cup at Southern Districts – we have worked together with South’s and the league to schedule as many of our matches that week at Souths to maximise attendance so please do everything you can to attend and support this extremely important day for our club(s). South’s have put a public facebook event up so please assist them by giving them an indication of your attendance as this is the first of hopefully many years of being able to play a “super” round of GBC v Southern Districts matches at the same location to celebrate our little mates enduring legacy across our great clubs.
Thommo has his Division 2 lads in a strong position with a 5 and 2 start, big thanks to the young lads that willingly double up regularly in Division 3, making our division 3 squad one to reckon with. This team is led by a coaching brain’s trust of Ben Dixon, Justin Millar, Luke Thompson and Bender.
Millar’s Division 4 continue to ride the strong pitching performances of Eldridge and Stevens and remain in contention of finals whilst Boris’s Division 5 lads are in the top 6 after seven rounds.
Our Division 6 teams (plural) are in the Southern conference meaning they only get a top four for finals and both teams are well and truly in contention for finals early. Division 7 is riding a 2 game winning streak under new coach Ali Hall and are hoping to make a charge.
Our Women’s program has started strongly – strong defence being our early calling card with the Division 1 team 4-0 and the two’s 3-0 (after an early bye).
If you know of any people looking to join Tigerland and play for the Bays we are always interested in a new player or two in our Men’s and Women’s ranks so don’t hesitate to have them make contact.
A special note to our wonderful scorers – thank you all, we are always in need of casual scorers to relieve some of our regulars – the scoring community is a wonderful one and even those with no prior experience playing or scoring are welcome, the opposition scorer will step you through the game even if you can’t get some tips or training from our scorer in chief Beverly McGearey in advance.
Please ensure if you haven’t finalised your fee’s payment you speak with Matt Jones asap – there have been some challenges with the system this year so if you are uncertain speak with Matt and we can tidy everything up.
See you at Tigerland – Bender!
As the ladies day preparations were taking place our boys rolled out to play the team we conquered in round one the senators of Woodville.
The lovely new Brett balls had arrived and Hilly was entrusted to throw the first one in GBC colours for the year.
It was fair to say it was back to the Hilly of old as he carved through the senators in the first.
This had a down side as the Woodville pitcher took inspiration from Hilly and basically did the same thing.
We had a good old fashioned pitcher’s duel on our hands with tigers and senators going down like ten pins at Woodville bowl.
We cracked first allowing a run in the third and the boys could not muster anything until the fourth.
Hayden lead of reaching on an error a perfect sac bunt by Flynn getting him to second. A helpful passed ball getting Hayden to third for Wurfel to Sac fly him in. Bays tie it up.
Hilly again dominate on the mound got us in to try again. Witty lead off taking the coaches word of you must get on to heart wearing one square in the back painful but great work.
Coach Lenny realizing we had wheels on the bench quickly replaced Witty with Kyle Alexander. As this was taking place Woodville made a pitching change we finally got a chance to face a Woodville relief pitcher.
Kyle dually stole second Sonny got a base hit to left himself stealing second. after an Elliot walk Mags knobbed one perfectly to third allowing Kyle to race home. We got the lead. Hayden then ensured we had breathing space by hitting a ground rule double scoring Sonny and Elliot
After the inning was over we were up 4 to 1
Hilly gave the ball to Hayden having completed five innings of work for no earned runs two hits and 10 strike outs hell of an effort.
Hayden went out and proceeded to strike out the side to allow us to tack on some insurance runs with walks to Rion Kyle and Sonny an RBI ground out from Jacob and base hit to Elliot scoring another 3 giving us a comfortable 7- 1 lead.
Hayden was superb in relief as dominate as Hill was with 6 ks over his three innings of work.
The pleasing thing was we did not have our a grade going early against a quality pitcher but when the guys where called upon to do the team things they all contributed by Sac bunts and Sac fly’s and even RBI ground outs although not what players want are the things that make coaches happy.
Keep learning guys and we will go places
The Division 3’s had our second bye of the season due to again facing Woodville on a Sunday without a division 3 team.
HELP REQUIRED: We are in desperate need of a scorer(s) to assist on the following dates please –
Thank you to Paul Luders, Renee Jones, Lenny Eldridge, Heidi Bruggeman & John & Karen Laverty who have volunteered/assisted already over the first 8 rounds – this is much appreciated.
As per my Playing Operations Manager report for those who are available but hesitant please note Beverley McGearey may be able to assist you with some basics scoring instruction otherwise the scoring community is a wonderful bunch who are happy to assist those who help by stepping them through the process on the day – it is a wonderful way to watch the game and gain a true appreciation for the sport.
Thanks – Bender.
After the early season bye the Bays hosted a familiar foe, albeit a very different look to the newly elected Senators of Woodville. Our regular dish guy had bucks duties to attend to and rather than put my hand up for an entire game behind the plate first up, I opted for an all L Eldridge battery to kick things off. After the standard plate meeting confirmed the usual rules would apply Dodo donned his gear and called play ball. Gamer toed the rubber and looked good to go, thanks to a dropped 3rd strike he would go on to record 4 punch outs to start the day for the home team.
The Bays jumped out to a 1-0 lead, with 2 outs and a runner on 3rd after 4 guys we looked like we might settle for a 1-0 start. But the home guys would go on to send 8 hitters up with 2 outs and plate 7 first inning runs on the back of hits from Shaw, Kloeden, Sadler, Abroe, Big Dawg Deeble and HardCore Williams. Gamer rolled back to start the 2nd and gave up a lead-off single to his counterpart 5 hole gal, followed by 3 more punch outs. The home 2nd saw a 1-2-3 down in order, including Gamer getting out and proceeding to pack up his bat and ball and go home (or scrub himself up for the aforementioned bucks show).
After reminiscing of Maddux and Eddie Perez the coached pulled an all battery swap and subbed in Stevens and personal catcher M House to get the 3rd underway. A flyball and a couple of punch outs later and the Tigers headed back to the bench to look at reigniting the bats, posting another 7 spot largely again thanks to hits from Abroe, Big D, Corey, Shawy and Handy.
Stevens went about getting his required work in over the remainder of the game and looked sharp in his first multiple inning outing of the year. The guys in black & gold would tack on another 17 over the next 2 innings, Stevens going 2 for 2 off the pine and driving in a career high 4 runs a highlight of the day. A one sided affair finally came to a close and left us pondering where the days of mercy rules had gone as we enjoyed a well-earned post game refreshment.
We’ll take pre-xmas W’s in any form we can, back to back 20+ team hit games are a rarity if ever I’ve seen one, just ask And Peter Dixon…….will confirm.
Week four of our seven week road trip took us back out North, this time to the friendly confines of Northern Districts. With the Vengabus budget exhausted it was regular transport this week, with Hollywood back on the hill. Taking the sticks first, the Snakes Alives managed a couple of base knocks courtesy of the Fendog and the Cave Darter, but alas HSR was not troubled as the good guys came up empty.
Hollywood rolled through the Reds lineup, whiffing a couple around a nice play from the G-Spot, this time playing an unaccustomed 2B.
The good guys scored one in the second while keeping the Reds at bay, but wee having some issues in getting the scoreboard to tick over. The G-Spot continued to excel in the field and with Hollywood piffing it nicely the opposition seemed unlikely to get many runs on the Tomazek and Doogie scoreboard.
It took us a few digs but finally in the 5th, Wilbur's massive bag of Gaietys finally kicked in with their six grams of sugar per serve, helping the sluggish bats to come alive. Hits to Wilbur and G-Spot around a Killer SAC fly and a wild throw had the boys up and about with a five spot.
Hollywood rolled a complete game shutout and the good guys retired to the green can pavilion despite V-Dub rocking a sliced arm, which will be sure to impress the ladies after it gets badly stitched up by a Flinders intern.
The 7-0 win keeps us in 3rd spot as we venture out North once again to take on the 4th placed trolley Dodgers next week.
I started pitching and got beat up a bit, we gave them a 5 -0 head start, Mitch then came in to steady the ship and Marty Leaker closed, both doing there jobs
The score book was covered in green pen, all hit the ball hard so we managed to catch our opposition in the first innings, I find it difficult to name individual players in the batting box and as I mention we all hit ball extremely well. Probably the two Marty's come to mind
Defensive not good heaps of errors but didn't matter ,I hear Sanga turned a double play as the highlight
Keep up the good work
We headed up to Sturt after last weeks win. To take on the saints . Game got under way we got on to the score board with one crossing the plate. Saints came out with a huge dig scoring 7 ,the team didn’t give in over the next few digs chipping away at the score. The team held strong in the field but we needed runs. was now up to the hitters to fire up ,and they sure did scoring 7 in the last to take the win, all played well, that’s two wins in a row let’s keep it going . Coach Ali
