We travelled to the Gawler outpost for an important 4 point game against the improved contending Rangers, with the knowledge they would have good pitching in form of their big import.
Jacob in his now customary lead off role, got us of to a good start with a 10 pitch at bat to start the game. Things took a horrible turn for the worse with Connor Hill suffering a serious injury whilst stealing 3rd. Hilly unfortunately will require surgery to mend his broken tibia & fibula. The whole club wishes him the best with the surgery and subsequent recovery.
From there the game became a real battle, with their pitcher providing them good service, we had one of our own Hayd's matching him pitch for pitch in a great performance on the hill. With runs hard to come by Hayd's also decided to take care of things himself and deposited a long ball over the right field fence.
Aside from that run scoring opportunities were few and far between, but a pair of hits each to Witty & Sonny helped move a couple of runs across the plate to give us a small margin late. Oz came into relieve and was workman like. End result was a good win in tough circumstances. Defence was the key with some run saving plays made.
Another tough game coming up this weekend, against top of the table Hawks.
Down a few soldiers we scratched together a team for the long trip north to Gawler. Line-up included most the Hiller family with father and ex GBC player Brian, suiting up with sons Zane & Casey for their first ever game together.
Will Burke was flipped the pill for the start and was good from the get go and pretty much the whole game for a quality outing.
We were able to score regularly and provide Will enough run support that he could coast along to a solid victory. Most players chipped in for a hit and our defence was solid all game. Team is well placed for a strong run at finals.
Thanks to Millar for assuming coaching duties for the day and Anders for getting some re-enforcements with his mate Tommy having a good game at short and in the box.
With new year’s celebrations behind us we got back into action with a road trip against a high quality opposition. After an early morning text bomb dropped our numbers by one I rolled on down to the bay to watch the start of Team Boris. This was put on delay as my only bench player for the day was in need of a lift to the ER after copping a comebacker to the face in BP, thankfully all worked out well here and L Thommo was up and running (of sorts) a couple of hours later.
I left the home field behind with the prospect of no bench guys weighing very heavily on my mind, none the less – Kymbo closed out the 5s and cruised down Tapleys Hill Rd to slot into LF with a few minutes to spare. With about 6 regulars on the N/A list for the day, including the 4-5-6 hitters, we needed all the help we could get.
The blue explained the rules remained the same as usual and play ball was called. GrAbroe lead-off for the visitors and what looked like a single up the middle was turned around by an athletic play from The Rams el presidente at short. Alex Marsh went slightly better and beat out an IF single, newly acquired catcher for the day B Dixon dumped one into RF and we had a 1-0 lead.
With limited bullpen options I had high hopes Lachy would give us a quality start, a lead-off walk and HPB later and I was a little more on edge as one of the best hitters in our league stepped to the plate. Their lead-off was having none of just letting Tibbo do his thing and decided to swipe 3rd, Dixo gunned him down but the ensuing slide into Marshy’s mini leg had our third sacker in a world of hurt early. Play resumed, Gamer picked off the runner at 1st and a ground out later we used a get out of jail free card early in the piece.
We scored 3 more in the 3rd and knocked their starter out of the game, Abroe got the big knock here with a loaded bases, 2 run single to right chasing the SP off the hill. Marshy greeted the new hurler with a base hit to RF to plate a run and push the score out to 5-0. He moved up the line at the speed of Sanga, but thankfully Boris had answered an SOS call and made his way to Ram Park and the change was made. Boris would later roll a sweet double play to keep the shutout intact.
Gamer rolled through the next few innings scattering a few hits and looking sharper as the game went on. Kymbo Slice dropped a 2 out solo johnson and 6-0 was feeling a little more comfortable. In the next inning we got 1 run across but again would record our 3rd out with bases loaded thanks to some weird field placement and a potential base hit that was turned into a line drive double play.
Lachy went into the last with 19 pitches up his sleeve and would go on to complete the CG shut out, recording the final out, and wrapping up an extremely pleasing win given the circumstances. Thank you to Boris for getting down to the game and helping out with the numbers, old one eye Thompson was in no position to sit for us.
A good first up win for 2019, here is hoping there are many more to come for all those in yellow and black. Best of luck to the guys involved in the state teams and we all wish C Hill a speedy recovery after a nasty injury on the weekend.
All fattened up from Christmas cheer, the Snakes Alives welcomed a rare home game which thankfully was the first of many heading towards the pointy end of the season. The boys were buoyed by the return of one of Tigerland’s favourite sons in the Captain, donning the lemon fresh uni for the first time in five years.
The coach flipped the pill to Hollywood while team manager Snoop Dogg had to swap his game top for the umpire’s counter as the programmed punter failed to front.
The Grovers, sitting in fourth place right behind us on the ladder, came out of the blocks with a run on the board before a fly out to our inTENTS rightfielder completed the top of the first with just the one on the board.
After our previous encounter at the Grove where we came from behind to win 4-3, the Grover coaching staff decided to swap the pitching staff to piff some Moose knuckles at our boys before handing the pill to the big dipper. The Captain, despite not swinging a bat in anger for roughly 1826 days, knocked one into centre to get things rolling. The Cave Darter repeated the dosage and we went in tied at 1-1 after the first. The score remained tied at one until the Big Dipper repeated his heroics from our first encounter, depositing a monster shot over Jo Lerche’s delicious face to give the visitors a 3-1 lead.
Bottom three saw the good guys peg one back with hits to the Caveman and Benny Banassi to have us down 2-3 after three. Hollywood shook off the monster jack to shut down the Grovers and we went to the bottom four looking for a lead. Kymbo slice reached on an error to get things going before VW moved him to second with a solid bunt. Killer walked before a wild pitch saw the boys move up to 2nd and 3rd. Another wild one saw Kymbo fly home like Jackie Robinson on pingaz to tie things up, then Benny Hana knocked one up the guts to give us the lead. The Captain followed with a high one that centrefield couldn’t handle which took us 5-3 to the good, forcing a pitching change for the visitors.
Hollywood continued to fight without his best stuff, getting through 5.1 digs before coach Borrito flipped the pill to the Slice to get us home. Mr. Freeze moved to a foreign spot at left field and made the coach look good by snaffling a sensational grab as the Slice toiled away on the bump. The ninja once again did his thing, getting through the rest and finishing off the game with a sensational line drive Miyagi snaffle and piff to double the Grovers off and put this one to bed.
We move on to another massive challenge next week as we hope to continue some home cooking against the second placed EagleHawks.
The showdowns always played in good spirits no one was to concerned about who won or who lost just as long as it was fun .
Numbers a little light being this time of the years ,we only had 9 and Blake sat just in case someone got hurt so thank u Blake! I started on the mound didn't last long giving up 4 so fenny came in as fireman and minimised the damage to one more equalling 5 , fenny then continued to pitch and he was faultless holding them scoreless for 2 plus innings.We then went to our trusty closer Samual tee crackenbrush and he didn't disappoint by closing the game down in good style.
Our fielding over the past few games has been good ,Langers caught as Sanderco and mundy unavailable. Langers the standout there doing a very good job by throwing a runner out which is close to unheard at our level .
Dylan smashed the ball all day with multiple hits,he had a break out game well done!but overall ,we batted well to score 13 runs
Happy new year too all and good luck as we all approach the post season
