We headed east to take on Kensington for Round 2 of the WBL Season. After seeing off a very threatening set of rain pre match the skies cleared up and we settled into a normal start time ready to take on the Cardinals. Unfortunately, normal would stop there as we had the ridiculous & frustrating experience of being told at the plate meeting of a rule change instituted only hours before game time, which was being interpreted by the umpire in charge as a maximum 60 minute or 4 inning game.
With the realization the game would last less time than some of our players commute we refocused on the task of scoring early and often. Sarah McMahon took the initiative and led off with a line drive single to left, before scoring on a misplayed liner off the bat of Jenny Dunn. We then continued the offensive charge with a ground rule double, single, and a couple of walks before Jacqui Dunn ended the inning with an RBI single to invoke the 5 run/inning mercy rule.
Alice was obviously motivated to keep hitting racing through their 1,2,3 hitters in short order in the first – keeping all the momentum our way.
We continued swinging the bats well in the second, going walk, single, single, double, walk, single, single quickly jumping out to a 10 – 0 lead.
Another 1,2,3 inning in the second – a groundout to shortstop preceded 2 punch outs and we were cruising along quickly.
In the third we loaded the bases on the back of Dunn, Crabb & Parker reaching before McMahon singled two home and in scenes I’ve never seen before a mercy rule end of game was enforced in the top half of an inning. Final score 12-0 Tigers.
We stuck around and played out the bottom half of the inning to allow both teams to enjoy the remaining sunshine and play a little longer.
In the end a very nice all round performance. Everyone contributed offensively and Prokopec was dominate on the hill, backed up wonderfully by our infield defence. Regardless of the confusion around the rule communication it is a rare event to see a pitcher retire every hitter they faced in order – great work Alice and Sarah who are developing a nice connection early in the season.
We continue our month long road trip to open the season with a big match up against Southern Districts next Friday. Congratulations to our Division 2 team who started off their season with a first up win against the Gawler Rangers at home.
Our first game of the season and the girls were super keen to play on Diamond 1 for the first time. It was a slow start by our starting pitcher Alex but she managed to pull it back and only allowed 1 run in the first. Sarah Wright was excellent behind the dish, not allowing any wild pitches past her.
We took charge with the bats and our base running to get to the 5 run maximum without too much trouble in the first. Kayla Shipton has made the change from softball and enjoyed taking some decent leads and her base running was punctuated with a beaming smile the whole time. Phoebe took advantage of a dropped 3rd strike and made it to first. We didn’t let any opportunities pass us by and made runs on missed pitches by the catcher and pressured them into fielding errors.
We had our first double play of the season with Shona taking a great catch in right field and then making the throw to Kassy at first to tag a slow runner who didn’t make it back in time. We had some small errors in the field but pulled it back and had a strong finish. Becc Bond took a tough catch at 2nd staring right into the sun. With Alex throwing strikes there were some hits that made it to the outfield where Cariad combined with Pyke and for some great relay throws to stop the advancing runners. Lucy came in to pitch the last innings and did a great job, her first strikeout of the season came with her second batter.
Overall for the first game, the team did a great job. Played well as a group and showed a strong intent to win with a smile!
