The U15s losing streak spanning two seasons has finally come to an end!
We didn’t just win, though – we absolutely raked it in! Taking the’ W’ and 2 points we defeated a combined Woodville - West Torrens team, 2-12, at their newly-renovated premises in Lockleys.
On the back of 3 losses and a draw this season, the Tigers were determined to take a game for themselves. Reflecting on their performances as a team and recognising where they must force change to gain the success they wanted, the kids certainly deserved the win they earned.
I could list off the game play by play, but, in all honesty, there were too many good plays and performances. Every single player in this team contributed something amazing. It was truly a team effort and, rightly so, they all deserve a mention.
Starting pitcher Charlie went five innings. Pitching just 55 pitches he faced 18 batters, struck out four and allowed just one hit. Charlie backed it up in the batter’s box and went three from four, with an RBI.
Callum had a solid day behind the plate, filling the shoes of Henry who was away on holidays. Overdue for a hit, Callum hit a single and a double, with two RBI’s.
Cyrus tallied up a single and two walks - he is now dubbed our ‘BB-guru’ with seven for the season! A great effort at first base all day, catching two foul fly balls.
Angus was unlucky in the batter’s box with some rough calls from the ump, but still managed to get on base and score. He had a cracker of a day at short stop with three assists.
Wren was a force to be reckoned with in centre field, taking two on-the-run catches. She was on base three out of four at bats, with a safe hit and two RBI’s. Her baserunning is by far the most aggressive in the team.
Sam got a safe hit going oppo, solidly batted in three runs and was an absolute wall at third base catching a nasty line drive.
Anna came to the party and scored us a run with her aggressive base running, also, and made a couple of great plays at second.
While Ollie didn’t manage a safe hit, he was super aggressive with the bat and on base. He made one of the most spectacular back up plays at first base I think I’ve ever seen – swooping in from right field to back up the throw to first, he jumped on a stray ball and dove metres to touch the base to make the out! A perfect example of why you always back up first when you’re playing at right field!
Lastly, Kai. Got on base three out of his four plate appearances, scored twice and batted in one. Kai came in to shut the game out with another great pitching performance in the last innings.
It is fantastic to see this group’s progress and growth. On behalf of the dozens of people who have messaged me congratulations to the team, I applaud you all.
Your resilience to continue to battle each week after such a long time between wins is both inspiring and courageous. What you will learn from this will be invaluable to you going forward.
Keep it going, Tigers. Big things to come.
Today we lined up against the combined Norther Districts and Gawler Rangers team. With only one win under their belt, today was our day to shine.
With our own combined team of 14’s, 13-1’s and 2’s we were set. Beau started for us on the mound after a week off, getting straight to work. Unfortunately, NR had other ideas, taking Beau to task. Managing 6 runs in their first at bat, we matched them in the bottom bringing in 6 of our own. Their starting pitcher was erratic to say the least walking 5 of our 10 at bats.
With a single and a double out to CF for NR, they managed another 5 runs in a long drawn out innings that saw us get through 1 inning in just over 60 mins. With Beau making the most of his return this week, maxing out his pitch count, Austin came in to finish off the top of the 2nd. We managed to keep NR to 5 runs through the top of the 2nd.
NR started where they left off the 1st, walking our first 5 batters in a row before a pitching change walked another 2. With some aggressive base running by all those getting on base we were able to capitalise on some inexperienced pitching. Bailey finished off the bottom of the 2nd with a power drive out to CF for a double bringing in 2 x RBI’s to mercy NR taking the score to 13-11 in favour of the good guys.
Our game plan from this point going into the top of the 3rd was to shut them down. After Austin applied some pressure to the first at bat showing them his intent, there was no ‘sorry’ after he hit the batter with a fast ball sending him to 1st . After a striking out the 2nd at bat and then the 3rd for the 2nd out of the innings we kind of lost the momentum after this. Their tails wagged with 6 hits scoring 7 runs to mercy us at the top of the 3rd.
With the score now at 18-13, we needed a solid batting innings to sure up our first win of the season. With 4 safe hits to start our innings it wasn’t enough to get us over the line this week. We finished off the innings with 2 pop up fly balls to the pitcher who confidently closed out the game for the Northern Rangers taking their second win of the season robbing us of our first. We had a good sniff of it though…not long now.
Special thanks to Joaquin, Lucas, Ari and Owen from our 13’s squad for bolstering our 14’s this week.
Hits this week to Bailey, Noah, Kai, Austin, Beau and Ari – all managing the 1.
That’s it from me for official Head Coach duties. Adam, who has been my trusty assistant these past 5 weeks, will be taking over from next week. He will be ably supported by BA, Shawry, Pies and Michael over the various weeks when being supported by the 13’s army. I’ll still be hanging around to support Adam as well from week to week, but for now I’m looking forward to getting out and seeing our 11’s and 15’s in action.
Well, what a game our U11 Tigers had at the home of the Hawks. With a squad of 15 players I didn’t think we’d have a game this season where we had the bare 9 players. With one player struck with sickness in the first inning we were down to 8 – but that did not stop us from giving it a good hard crack.
We came out hot with the bats with Seb, Natalia, Jimmy, Lincoln and Opal all collecting hits. With a few walks added in the mix, we scored the maximum 4 runs and headed out on to the field.
Zac collected 2 quick strikeouts but had to work hard to get that last out. With loaded bases Zac fielded a come-backer and fired the ball to Seb at 1st base to get the 3rd out – a spectacular play that even had the Hawks complementing our fielding.
Hawks fired back in the 2nd inning, keeping us scoreless but couldn’t stop Jimmy from collecting another hit. He then moved to the mound and picked up a few strikeouts mixed with a few walks. Again, we were in a situation with loaded bases and would you believe it – another come-backer to our pitcher to get the 3rd out again! (Plays like this don’t happen often in U11) – it was absolutely fantastic and had the crowd cheering!
The team were patient in the box with a pitching change from Southern Districts, and a few patient at bats loaded the bases. Jimmy with his hot bat delivered again, smashing a double to centre field for 3 RBI. We went into the final inning up by 3 runs Ethan came into close the game and battled hard throwing plenty of strikes. Unfortunately, Hawks got a hold of one of Ethan’s pitches, hitting over 1st base to score 3 runs.
After trailing all game, Souths snuck home in the last to claim the win 9-8. The team rallied together despite the early morning heat and played the best they have all season, collecting 8 hits (Jimmy with 3 of those). Our on-field communication was loud and the team comradery was fantastic! The team truly deserved the win this week and are certainly winners in the coaches eyes.
