Our Division 1 Women kicked off the season with a round 1 showcase match pitting the two grand finalists from last season together before the remaining teams and Division 2 commence this coming Friday.
Originally scheduled for West Beach a league directive issued early in the week forced the movement of this game to Sturt’s field at Mitcham. This change resulted in barely an hour fifteen minutes of playing time in overcast conditions without the benefit of West Beach’s lit facility, robbing a nice crowd of an absorbing contest as the game progressed.
Sturt settled fastest and whilst we scored one in the top of the first they responded with a three spot including an unearnt run or two as we took some nerves into our first defensive inning of the season. From there the game was a real arm wrestle, Prokopec showing her ability on the hill working quickly through the 2nd and 3rd innings. Down 5-3 with light expiring we led off the final inning with runners on first and second with none out before advancing both runners to scoring position with one out. Unfortunately for us Neller and her infield combined beautifully to snub out our rally and after a quick discussion with the plate umpire it was agreed to call it a night.
Prokopec was strong on the hill for us all night, Kassy Rose made her Division 1 debut after joining the club mid season last year and was fantastic picking up 2 singles against quality pitching. Jenny Dunn was strong defensively at shortstop and Dana Aldwin had a nice game including a slick diving stop at second base early in the game. Sarah McMahon was great filling the void of retired catcher Papadothomakos, and showed improved patience at the plate adding a new threat to her game. Jess Maslin also made her debut for the bays, providing some extra thump to our line up with a couple of hits also.
In all a nice hit out early in the season, despite the result – Sturt continue to set the pace but we’ll take confidence from the last two hit outs against them as we build into our season. Couple of injury concerns heading into our first split squad match ups this week (Division 1 away at Kensington, with Division 2 home against Gawler).
Massive thank you to Alex Meldrum, Fiona Crabb, Sarah Wright and Em Parker for providing much needed options and insurance off the bench – a luxury we won’t have often but was greatly needed throughout this match.
Get around our ladies – as above Division 2 start their title defence this Friday night at home, whilst the 1s continue their early season pilgrimage tour to face the Cardinals of Kensington.
