With the clouds looming the Bays took on the magpies on their home deck.
With the wind blowing out for the first time in the history of magpie park the boys where keen to swing the sticks. Unfortunately those sticks went ground out walk ground out fly out to have us quickly out in the field. No worries said Oz and duly got us back in to hit as he easily retired there line-up in the bottom half.
We went up and tried to use the wind to are advantage only to see three fly outs have Oz take the hill again. The storm gods decided to make this inning interesting with rain thunder and lightning all ensuring this would get tough. It did and due to a loss of what has up till then been unreal control a few lucky hits and a par three golf swing that cleared the fence we were suddenly 8 runs down.
We got one back through a hit by pitch to Rion walk to coach zed and a double from Elliot but the port pitcher again was able to silence our bats
Showing the last inning was an anomaly Oz went out and struck out the side in what was an excellent response and one the coaching staff was looking for.
After realizing the long ball was not going to work we decided to see if the port infield could field in the wet. They could not and after a leadoff walk and putting two runners on with errors scoring a run another HPB allowed Gluyas to single one through the infield to score two, Bays closed the gap 8 -4
Hayden took over from Oz and was solid through two but ran out of puff in the last Bays going down 13 – 5
We had some good at bats throughout the game Elliot collecting two hits the stand out but a lack of composure and owning every at bat sore us goof off a little when the going got tough good teams don’t do this. The beautiful thing is it is only week two so lots of baseball ahead to improve and push ahead with the season.
Let’s take our revenge on Norths next week
After the opening round bye/forfeit due to the late removal of Woodville’s Division 3 team from the competition the new look division 3 GBC took on Port Adelaide @ Port on Sunday. A very young team was supported by a couple of grizzly veterans with Ben Dixon and Grant Jones set to become Sunday regulars and Justin Millar, Kym Bartlett and Craig Handy backing up from Division 4 duties Saturday.
We welcomed new recruit Will Burke from Souths mid week and he took the ball after we went down 1,2,3 in the top of first, an unfortunate insight into how the early stages of the game would go against Port’s Lefty pitcher. Will threw well – but a sloppy first inning gave Port 2 runs and some life early. Will settled down in the second but we again were unable to trouble the scorers with the Port hurler racking up the strikeouts. With one out in the third Grant Jones worked a walk before Justin Millar pounded a line drive right at the third baseman who managed to flip it across the diamond for a double play before Jones could scamper back.
Port scored again in the third and going into the top of the fourth our offense was struggling to make the adjustments to the port pitcher, repeatedly out in front of his offerings. In the fourth Flynn Luders managed to wait back long enough and drove a ball to deep centre for a double and eventually scored to get us on the board.
Flynn then took over duties on the hill as we spread out the pitching load in anticipation of the upcoming double header weekends against Goodwood and Kensington that will require these lads to be ready to step up into the division 2 ranks when those lads provide division 1 depth. We have some solid young pitchers in our club that will be provided opportunities in multiple divisions this year as they continue to develop under Zierch, Eldridge and shortly our club pitching coach Chris Burkholder on his arrival. Flynn threw the final three innings only getting in strife against the heart of their order when he left a fastball or two up in the zone. Regardless Flynn has shown that despite his youth his ability to develop into our next generation of GBC pitchers is close at hand.
The young lads showed some real growth in their first hit out and started to adjust against Port’s tiring pitcher and in the top of the last we had the tying and go ahead runs in scoring position but pinch hitter Handy was unable to get the job done. Gluyas, Laverty with some hard hit balls and Jones showing his patience with another walk putting a lot of the pressure on.
Ultimately the game ended in a loss but the ability of the lads is unquestioned, with the extra attention at training afforded by our strong division 1&2 coaching staff and further game exposure we have a team that will be very competitive in a league that will be a bit of an unknown entity at least early as a result of the league changes over the winter
Our first taste of the weirdness that is Saturday baseball in SA 2018/19 came on a perfect spring day in round two. With Boris and his crew playing away from I was lost in what to do with the early part of the afternoon and decided I guess you just rock up and hour before the game these days and watch 2 other clubs play in front of our game.
With the Big Dawg, Stephen Deeble fresh from a cook up in the Barossa the week before, he slotted straight into the lead-off spot to start his season and promptly flew out the CF to start proceedings. With the pill in hand the Saintly starter decided to work on about 1 pitch per 90 seconds and frustrate a few tigers in the meantime. On the back of a solid knock from Quals in the 4 hole we got on the board in the top of the first, and put up a 2 spot to get the ball rolling.
Lachy cruised through home half with a 1-2-3 and the Bays were able to plate 8 runs in the 2nd and 3rd through Big D’s first knock of the year, a bases clearing triple. Another big hit to Quals and Craig Handy doing his thing from both sides of the plate drove in some extra runs. Gamer got through 4 innings of work and flipped the pill over to Kym Bartlett, Kymbo would close out the last 2 innings, The Saints earnt themselves a run with some aggressive base running and timely contact at the plate.
We got a few extra runs late and closed out a good early season W in what seemed like pretty tough conditions, with the mercury around the 29’ mark for the first time in a while it felt like it was 39’ out there at some stages. A few big weeks ahead, so as always we want to keep building.
With Hollywood Holmes returning from two weeks on Exile Island it was a case of “one arm in, one arm out” as Kymbo Slice headed for the late game with supercoach Justice Milhouse needing to bolster his pitching stocks at Norman Bates Reserve.
The time on Exile Island allowed Hollywood to hone his fire making and survival skills however it had now been a good seven months since the great man had taken the hill – so naturally coach Boris flipped him the pill to blow the cobwebs out, against an Eagle outfit that boasted some solid (yet curiously uncertified) bats.
A couple of hits and a walk gave the Eags an early opportunity with loaded sacks and two out, but Hollywood produced a fireball that Pitbull (AKA Mr. Worldwide AKA Jamie Kloeden) would have been proud of, producing the crucial strikeout to end the threat.
The theme of each team threatening to score without resulting in a coloured in circle continued throughout the day, as the game developed into one as frustrating as the end of the movie ‘Inception” or possibly Jack Watts AFL career.
The pitching from Hollywood and relief Krajinator was outstanding, but after six innings the good guys still trailed 0-1 with just an inning remaining. As the Eagle hurler maxed out on pitches, a break finally came our way. The new verper’s pitching accuracy was akin to Port Adelaide’s Johnny Butcher in front of the big sticks, walking Killer and Freezer to set up a scoring chance. Another pitching change saw the Krajinator battle out an at-bat to single up the middle, tying the score at 1-1 with Mr. Freeze unfortunately thrown out at the dish. The Eagle coach showed no respect for the many trapped children the Cave Darter has rescued by issuing the four-finger intentional walk before extinguishing the threat with a tough strike out and pop-out, putting an exclamation on a day of frustration.
The matter of the final three outs still had to be negotiated - which the Krajinator and Vdub completed three times with ease – going into Mad Dog’s scorebook as 6-3, 6-3, 6-3, thereby emulating the scoreline of Roscoe Tanner’s 1977 Australian Open Tennis victory over Guillermo Vilas.
Hit Parade: Darter (2), Vdub (1), Krajinator (1)
Fenny started pitching and was very good. We got him out to about 40 pitches, which was a good roll over for him. Leaker then threw about 20 and our loving closer Sanga mopped up
Defensively very good all contributing, Marty Beyer again great game at 1B
Base running can be describe in one word (SLOW). It doesn't matter at the moment so all good
The Goodwood pitcher was hard to get away, he pitched quite well, this tangled us a little early but we managed to get on top, Luders, Leaker & Langers(the new recruit of the year) all having good times, Sandercock again good behind the dish
As mention fantastic to have Goodwood star Langers floating around with us, a top bloke as well. Welcome
Please keep up the good work and well done by all
