Big game up the hill against the hard hitting Sturt, in a heat affected reduced 7 innings game.
Sturt got a bit of a jump on his with some early runs of Jayden who managed to scramble through the early innings, Oz and Daisy threw the remainder of the game.
The lads mounted a spirited comeback to tie it up at 4 all through the middle innings, before the Saints rallied again and proved to be too good on the day.
Another 4 point game. We started as the away team at home again.
First innings started with a bang and a two run bomb from Beau Bishop giving us an early ascendancy.
Tightened after that into a real pitchers battle with Chris Burkholder and Tim Day getting the job done.
A good bounce back against a quality finals contending opposition
A hot summers day greeted the lads as they entered Norman reserve on Saturday
With the heat policy in play the game was cut short to a big bash style 90 mins
We got the ball rolling in the first with Jacob drawing a walk and scoring on Brains triple to left.
Unfortunately Sturt hit back in the bottom of the first against our young hurler in Flynn.
We could not muster anything in the second despite a one out single to Rion.
Flynn got us back in to swing them showing excellent control on the mound.
A one out double to Aled, Brian moving him to third allowed Sonny to squeak one up the middle to drive in our second run.
Unfortunately the wheels came off a little with the lads making some uncharacteristic errors allowing the Sturt machine to go up 4 –
We had our chances in the 5th with a HPB to Aled, Brian getting him to second Sonny smashing one to right Mags getting HPB having base loaded none out but again we just could not get that clutch hit.
We mounted a mini challenge in the last with Adam smashing a double down the right field line collecting his second hit of the game but we left him stranded there.
I thought Flynn was excellent in trying conditions but what is becoming a worrying theme we just seem to freeze in the box when we have runners on. We need to take a deep breath relax look for our pitchers not theirs and put the ball hard into play.
I think we are trying too hard to get the big hit when a sac fly base hit or even a walk will be sufficient.
Good hitters get hits great hitters get hits when it matters
Let’s be great hitters
Away at Sturt we faced an adjusted game due to heat – 2 hours now 90 minutes. Whilst it was warm its safe to say completing only 3 innings in that period of time is not a great advertisement for the new Sunday Division 3 schedule. After both pitchers struggled in the first inning throwing strikes our Starter – Will Burke, responded to the challenge and breezed through his remaining 2 innings in short order.
The procession of pitchers utilised by Sturt however did not. 11 walks and a HBP in three innings across four pitchers meant the game never developed any momentum. Our lads swung aggressively when given a chance and picked up a few nice hits with some quality swings. Laverty and Thompson with the two hardest hit balls of the day.
Defensively Alexander in Centerfield was strong but everyone played their part to ensure we weren’t giving away extra outs in the warm conditions.
13-3 in the end, pleasing to see Will make the adjustments needed, he’s a big part of our division 3/2 plans as we approach finals activity. Congratulations to D Ziersch on making his Division 3 debut – replacing Darcy Gluyas who had his first day of work at his new job and can look forward to paying his own fees in future seasons. We look forward to having super utility Darcy back next week when we return to Sunday baseball.
Away again this Sunday against East Torrens in what was a cracking contents last time round.
With the heat rule in effect and some field allocation issues solved we faced The Sox of Payneham in an away at the Bay.
The top of the first started with a lead off double to Big D Deeble, a base hit to Marshy got him across and a sac fly later we had a run in, and finished the top of the first 2-0. Stevens took the pill for the visiting home guys and worked around an early run to settle in to a very nice start.
With the score 2-1 after 4 innings it was a pitchers duel through the early going.
Fresh off the DL Paul Sadler set the table with a lead off double to start the 5th, 4 more hits this innings to Shaw, Kloeds and Handy and the Bays got out to a 7-1 lead. We tacked a few more on the top of the last with some extra green from Kloeds and Marshy, Stevo closed out what he started with a CG and pretty solid performance.
A good result against a team who are likely finals bound as we get ready to face some more quality teams in the coming weeks.
A steamy Saturday was on tap for the anxiously awaited clash between top of the pops East Torrens and the second placed Snakes Alives at Pamela Anderson Fields. With a full slate of games including some teams displaced by unforeseen circumstances, the GBC took in the huddled masses who were rewarded post game with some cool amber beverages and fine fare supplied by Div 7’s best behind the canteen counter in Timmy Trumpet.
A lack of league umpires meant that teams had to scramble to find someone to call the balls and strikes. Coach Beefy Borrito went straight to the top and requested Australia’s best – with King Spy AKA the GOAT answering the call despite a dodgy Achilles and recovering from high levels of red wine ingested on a recent foray down the mighty Murray.
Hammy Davis Jr. and Ham Borrito missed again with injury, while Wilbur helped out the red hot Team Ceej for the weekend, leaving bench duties to the Steak, Juck-Star and Hollywood, with the turf guy available for emergency duty.
The Slice was given piffing duties against the toughest lineup in the land, and straight away things were looking less than awesome as the first two hitters went single/double to have 2nd and 3rd occupied and none out. No worries for the Great Northern Ninja as he racked up a couple of K’s around a ground out to get out of the inning with just one run as the damage.
The good guys grabbed the sticks and went to work, with the Bombay Bomber and the Slice himself wearing “Brett” tattoos to take their base while the Cave Darter singled. With loaded sax the Tiges failed to score and we went in after one trailing 0-1.
In a bizarre case of déjà vu, the second also started badly for the Slice conceding three singles to load up the bases with no outs. No worries for the great man as he induced a ground ball to the G-spot for out number one at the dish, followed by an exact replay only better as the G-man started a 5-2-3 double play to extinguish what was a massive threat.
The Tige bats were quiet in the second and with time ticking faster than the Krajinator downing a pineapple cruiser, the 90 minute heat-shortened game was almost half done. The third inning saw our usually reliable defense produce a couple of uncharacteristic stink bombs to allow the visitors to extend their lead to 4-0 with no outs. The Slice, as he did all day, fought hard to stop this one getting out of hand, getting some help from the G-spot/Ghost Face/Krajaogoogo combo as another ground ball double play was racked up with loaded sax ended the inning.
Bottom three trailing 0-4 and looking flat, it was time to snap into gear like the great man Jack Watts after some minty Oktoberfest delights. With one out, the Cave Dweller singled before stealing second. Another out was followed by a slice walk, then cometh the moment cometh the man as the Fenomenon stroked one into the centre-right alley to double home a couple. The two out rally became an avalanche as hits to Ghost Faced Killa, Ben-In-Tent-I and The G-man had the score amazingly tied at 4-4 after three.
The top of the fourth saw a third double play turned by the Snakes Alives, this time it was V-Dub-USM-Kraj to end the threat and keep the score tied at 4-4.
Bottom four and the bats stayed hot, with the Mumbai Masher and the Cave Clubber knocking hits before a massive Krajina Johnson cleared the sacks to give us a 7-4 lead.
With time running out, Pretty Fly For A Slice Guy went back out to try and finish this one off. Despite giving up a four base hit to the COOZ that almost caused a pile up on Tapleys Hill Road, the Sexy Slice induced a pop-up to Killer and the come-from behind 7-5 win was in the books.
It was a crazy game played in two 45 minute halves, the first half pretty ugly and the second half most attractive. All in all a very handy win to keep us in the mix for a top two finish with three rounds to play…
DIV 6 TIGERS REPORT - Baseball/Movie quiz
The 10am start was welcomed for our 7s as the temperature was well below the expected top for the day. Andrew Potter took the pill and worked a 1-2-3 first against the league leaders. The home team swung the bat quite well, but some not so great base running prevented some extra runs being scored.
The Senators had a lot of experience on their side and did what they needed to get their W.
Pottsy got a nice line drive, Stix Bails got a couple of knocks and took a few nice catches in LF. The guys should be pretty chuffed with the score line given their places on the ladder.
Thanks to the umpire for his chainsaw punch outs and keeping the game flowing well. I did hear far better reports from our game compared to the div 6 late game umpire and his work.
