Epic extra innings game with Mason Clavell going deep for a walk off homer in the bottom of the 11th.
In what turned out to be a difficult day at the ball park on the back of scrambling a team together for Division 3, as a result of sickness and other unavailability’s we went into this important game down a few soldiers and without head coach Thommo. Subsequently not the best preparation, against an opposition who looked well prepared.
We flicked the ball to youngster Flynn Luders who toiled away and gave us a shot at being in the game. With the late changes we flipped the batting line-up around but could only muster 5 hits for the day. I thought Mouse with 3 hits in a new role as lead-off & Sonny (triple) hit the ball well all day, without much luck, were the best of our offense, only other hit for the day was a double to Hilly.
Unfortunately we couldn’t really maintain any scoreboard pressure and as a result of not our best day in the field either the result ended up blowing out.
End of the day a game to forget about reset and refocus for another tough challenge against Sturt this week.
Thank you to Millhouse for stepping up and running game day in Thommo’s absence and Jayden & Lavo for filling in at late notice.
Sunday morning rolls around and all thoughts of a relaxing breakfast on a lovely morning are ruined as I turn the phone on to find our previous bare 9 players for the day was also missing another 3 due to illness to Thommo, NightHawk and Abroe. To the rescue came the double dose of L Eldridge and Jacob Eldridge. Christmas family dinner conversation now sorted at the Eldridge’s as they can all regal tales of Lenny controlling proceedings behind the dish, Gamer taking gangsta hacks while playing first base and Mouse doing his thing at Shortstop.
After spending the pre game arranging permits and waking Gamer up to save the day we got underway with East Torrens jumping out of the gates scoring a quick first run. In a sign of things to come Kyle Alexander took first base on a walk, stole second and before long we had tied the game up – Kyle was a constant threat all day, using his speed to great effect. Rion Sato later scored when the left fielder fell over in an attempt to pick up the baseball and we had the early lead 2-1 after one.
Nothing much happened until the fourth with East Torren’s young hurler keeping our young bats off balance with some good change of pace before ET’s put together a string of hits to score two and take the lead. A change of pitchers for the Red Sox saw a change of momentum, we tied the game up in the 5th and took the lead in the 6th on a bases loaded single.
Gamer took his more traditional role as dominate pitcher guy closing the game out with a lazy 3 strike outs. Big effort from all involved – many thanks to those who answered the bell and let us field a team, nothing like a backs to the wall win to help a team find its identity. This squad keeps improving week on week – looking forward to having our reinforcements back this week as we face Sturt @ home.
In our final home game for the calendar year we hosted the Dodgers of Golden Grove. T Stevenson toed the rubber in his first start this season, he worked his way around a first inning double to send the home side into bat. With a couple of walks, a single to Stevens and a 2 run double to Paul Sadler we jumped out to a 4-0 lead after the 1st.
Stevo cruised through the next 2 facing the minimum and punching out 4. Coach Man-Hands Millar kicked of the home 2nd with a lead-off double, followed by hits to Big Dawg Deeble and Marshy and the bays plated 6 more to lead 10-0 after 2. We kept our hot bats rolling throughout the game with every spot in the lineup getting a knock – the bat of the day belonged to Marshy collecting 5 hits and making a slick play at 3B look easy.
Gamer Eldridge came on to rack up 4 K’s in his 1 innings of work. We tacked on a 9 spot in the final frame, 2 run doubles to Qualmann and Sadler the biggest hits of the innings.
A 3 game road trip begins between now and the xmas break as we look to take the hot bats with us to each of the next 3 ballgames.
Week five of the marathon road trip took us to IllyCatch22 reserve to take on 4th placed Golden Grove in the proverbial “four point” contest, as they sat right on our 3rd place booty just a half game adrift on the Sportsdesq ladder. With almost a full squad available and a bag of Gaietys ready to roll, this steamy afternoon promised a crackerjack contest – and that is exactly what it delivered.
Umpire and 2001 Chicago Cubs draft pick Mark Prior called “play ball” and the good guys prepared to face the Dipper and his solid repertoire of pitches. V-dub started the ball rolling with a hard hit single before the Fendog advanced him to second with one on the deck. The Cave Dweller racked up another hit – this time a double – to put the good guys on the board in the first before the Dipper got the next two outs. Hollywood then took the pill and got through the first unscathed despite Wilbur going full Willy Mays Hayes with a basket catch that had coach Borrito exclaiming “nice catch Biscuits. Don’t ever f**** do it again”.
A sensational pitching duel took us through the first three and a half digs before things took a turn for the worse in the bottom four. A close play at first went the way of the Grovers putting one on with none out. The Dipper then absolutely mashed a fasty into the Golden Grove Tavern drive-through to give the visitors a 2-1 lead. Before the 4th ended, the Grovers added another to lead 3-1.
Nothing doing for the Tiges in the 5th and with just five outs to play with after a leadoff out, things were getting as tight as Oprah’s pants at an all you can eat pancake breakfast. The Fenomenon was having nothing of it and singled with one out. Enter the saviour of not only all those kids in the Thai caves, but now the chance to rescue a big “W” as well. With a 2-2 count, the Cave Darter went “booooooyah” over the rightfield wall to tie the game at 3-3. Hollywood then bore down to keep the home team scoreless in their half, and with one inning to play, we remained tied at 3-3.
Top seven, the G-spot flied out for out number one. Coach Borrito, looked to the bench and decided that a prime cut of succulent steak was just what this game needed. Steak coolly missed two pitches to wait for the one he really wanted, then knocked the third into centre for a single. The coach then looked to the bench for some speed, but then realising that it was illegal, asked for big Benny-A instead. After V-dub fouled off 6 strikes, Benny had lost three kilos in attempted steals, having to return every time to first. V-dub went down swinging after a marathon 10 pitch at bat, but importantly stretched the Dipper to his 105 pitch limit. Enter stalwart Moose, and with the Fenomenon down to our last strike, and Benny finally at second having successfully stolen, it was time. Fendog knocked one into centre, Benny jetted home and the Tiges had a 4-3 lead.
Bottom seven, and the Cave Darter was brought in for his first throw in about 6 weeks after having a new arm attached to replace the one destroyed by piffing 987 innings in winterball. No dramas as the great man rolled through three outs with some help from a WTG palm catch and a tasty KC to finish.
This was a game where every player contributed - some great defense, excellent pitching and timely hitting. Hats off to the Golden Grove boys also for a really grand game of high standard ball. The road trip continues next week to Ram Park.
What started as a reasonable game for about 3 innings, turned into a reasonable game for only one team after 6 (It was Sturt).
Our normal game of hitting well, pitching well and fielding well did not really develop as planned on this occasion with the quality Sturt outfit beating us in all aspects on the day. Sturt had many more hits than the Tigers and probably made more plays at crucial times than the locals.
Running and the ability to track balls down are not the normal part of the Tiger's repertoire (The Div 6 baseball team not the actual animal) which hurt us against the speedy opposition.
Fielding wise there was a good double play up the middle turned by Heath H and Marty L which was the definite highlight, although I did like the intentional walk to their 9 hole guy by the angry pitcher to get into a force situation with 2 out.
From the batters box possibly the best batters were Wayne H, Sam D and Heath H. But as this game was 2 days ago and have tried not to think much about it, I may be wrong (Upon writing this I think G Langley got a nice RBI hit)
Sturt were way too good on the day, but hopefully next time we can turn it around.
For Reference; I have no problem with the Sturt Baseball club, their colours or their moniker
Bruised and battered after a tough loss the week before, we found ourselves short a few players through injury as we faced the Indians.
Inning 1 - Potter nursing sore knees limped to the hill to start the game. He managed to have the Indians all out, after facing 7 batters. Potter put in a solid effort finishing with a 3 pitch KC and keeping the damage to 2 hits and 2 runs. Our first trip to the plate had Burton lead off with a single to centre, before getting out to a fielder’s choice of the bat of Munday. Munday advanced on a pickoff error at first. Pycock was next with a single to third advancing Munday, before a Triple to Major saw both come home. Swansson struggled to dial the pitcher in and fell to a K2. Shaw made first on a wild throw, scoring Major. Then we were all done with a K2 to Stix to finish the inning (GBC 3 – GWD 2)
Inning 2 – Potter was dominant on the Hill with 3 K2 strikeouts over 4 batters with the only 1 Indian to make first on an error in the field. Pumped after a short fielding Innings we came out and scored 6 with Hits to Burton, Munday, Major, Swansson and Laukirbe. Pycock and Shaw managed Walks and Bramley on through an Error saw us up by 7 runs heading out to field again (GBC 9 - GWD 2)
Inning 3 – We finally showed some solid fundamental baseball after it being absent for a while, getting the Indians out with a 5-3 and a magic doubled 6-4-3 after a safe hit by a lonely Indian. Our third appearance at the plate was one of mixed fortunes with us only managing to score the run of Burton who had reached first after an HPB. Major and Swansson both managed singles and the rest was basically fielding training on our behalf. (GBC 10 – GWD 2)
Inning 4 – We came to the field a little shaky after the last but managed to keep the Indians scoreless after 5 batters. With a new Pitcher the inning started well for us with Stix on with a single to centre, but then was one to forget, with us out and fielding again after only 5 batters facing up to the Indians (GBC 10 – GWD 2)
Inning 5 - Potter was brilliant again holding the Indians to only 1 run. Snagging another out on a K2, the rest came down to solid work by us in the field. The Fifth started terrible for us with Pycock and Major falling in succession. Swansson buzzed the Left field gate with a solo first Home Run before Shaw was out (GBC 11 – GWD 2)
Inning 6 – With Potter retiring after a stellar effort on the hill the wheels fell off with Munday, then Major taking duties on the hill. Unfortunately, both struggled to dial in the strike zone, but it was not without glimpses of brilliance. Goodwood managed to pile on 6 runs to come within 2 of us, before time and game was called seeing us snag the win. (GBC 11 – GWD 9)
Hits – Major, Swansson (3). Burton (2). Munday, Pycock, Stix, Laukirbe (1).
What is there to say this week other then the team look a little like a return of the Bad News Bears. Congrats to Tim & Neil for getting our two safe hits for the day, think that says it all. Going down 15-0 ,to the better team on the day.
Dodgers ground was not our Field of Dreams , we are looking forward to put it back on track this week. And get a win for the mighty Tigers !