Scrambling for players at the kitchen table Sunday morning, our skipper was asked to dust off those bright blue guards one more time, and like Maverick at the end of Top Gun, Andrew was thrust into battle. Rivalling the greenhouses of Virginia, the temperature soared inside the Rams’ new dugouts as we struck first scoring on Mason’s RBI single to left in the opening frame.
Errol had his first start for the year in this heat shortened game, and he did his best to fill up the zone. The boys of H&G did much of their damage on two pitches, and unfortunately our first inning run would be all that we could muster in support for Burnsy.
As our squad continues to be plagued by the injury bug, we went in search of other options out of the pen. Mason was strong in relief, and Joe threw the last inning. Where we got to see the 3 Gluyas Brothers take the infield together.
No W this week but we learn and grow as a team. Darcy and Kai looked great up the middle. At the plate we continue stay in the game throughout. When faced with all these injuries we look for the next man up. On Sunday we found that guy. High praise goes to Conor “Squnits” Gluyas for a superb performance at the hot corner. Flashing the glove and showing off his arm on a couple of tough plays, you couldn’t ask for a better effort. Squints even added a last inning knock to his swag of highlights
As if this year hasn’t dealt out its fair share of bad hands already, another 7 2 off suit has been slid across the table in the way of a two-week government imposed hiatus. We expect big things to come from this group on the other side.
The grey skies thunder and lightning where a bad omen to start Sunday mornings proceedings why you ask?
In a blink of an eye with half an hour till 9.00 three players dropped out of the starting line-up leaving the team short with not much time to go.
With a few frantic phone calls attempted uniform fittings of Jacko who was now starting the game got underway.
Blake doing what all lead offs should do started the game with a walk. Stealing second as is the normal these day he was pushed around by kai’s hit up the middle and scored on Henry’s rbi groundout.
For the third week in a row we scored in the first.
El presidento finally recovering from his last outing took the hill for the young studs and as soon as we got out there basically had us back swinging with an efficient three up three down
We went quietly in the second with only Jacko reaching on an error and then been dutifully pulled for Dan to rest his tight hamstrings. A great effort to just get out there to help us out with numbers
Bender was working the outside to perfection and was easily dismantling rams given us another crack at it
Back to the top of the line-up saw a carbon copy of the first with Blake walking stealing second Kai hitting a ball that was miss played by third allowing Blake to score then Henry also forcing a miss que had another run across the plate. A walk to Bender a Hit by pitch to Conor set the scene for Dan to break the game open with an RBI double down right felid line scoring two an RBI ground out scoring another had the score at 7 to nil
This is when the thunder gods had had enough and the game was stopped for this coaches first ever lightning in the vicinity rule. After the cloud cleared and we got out there again Henley showed why they are top using the delay to regroup and drop a 4 spot on us it could have being more if not for Blake hitting Conor on a relay throw and the runner getting thrown out at the plate. The game was back on.
We didn’t panic and the boys had great at bats with Conor collecting a hit Dan getting him to third on his second hit of the game and Conor scoring on an error by first.
Bender went out and went Bang bang bang game over young studs win.
What a game by everybody the quality of the at bats all day was amazing we went deep into counts and made them work for every out. Again are defence was strong keeping us in front all day. It is beautiful to be a part of.
Bender was superb on the Hill going the distance and in 37 degree heat. On that Millhouse behind the dish was also amazing appreciate it brother and I can’t also go past Dan for grabbing his uniform and racing down Jacko for starting even though his hammy was not a hundred percent and PG for being told your starting you’re not your starting and then not being used at all but just being there being a voice.
On a picture perfect day for baseball we headed back to the friendly confines of Anderson Ave to host the Adelaide Angels of Adelaide.
In a rarity for the season so far we almost had a full list of guys to choose from. After confirming the rules remained as per usual at the plate meeting, I flipped the pill to Hayds McGearey and he had an unbelievable game. He retired the Angels without much fuss in the first and after Sid Reynolds knocked in a couple in the bottom half Hayds singled to score a pair himself and it was 4-0 after one.
The visiting bats kept putting the ball in play all day, and a couple of ill-timed red pencil type plays let them get a couple of runs in. The all McGearey battery proved a difference maker on the day though. With the bases juiced in the 2nd Hayds yanked a long foul ball, but stayed on it with his next swing to drive in 4 with 1 swing of the bat. Fresh from being named on the HOF ballot for the first time Bobby Abroeu got a big 2 out hit to drive in a pair. He would later get mauled by a cat, so you have your ups and downs I guess. Not to be outdone by his younger brother, Old Timer Magglio lead off the 4th with a solo Johnson of his own. Much like a Nadal v Federer grand slam match up, Hayds returned serve and dumped a 2 run number this time. Mags retreated back behind the plate like Tom Hardy in the 2011 film Warrior, letting his brother have some of the spotlight. Bobby got on the bump at the end and recorded the final 3 outs as required. A special mention goes out to the 3 guys who each got hit twice by opposing pitchers. It isn’t much fun getting hit in high scoring games, but free bases and good team focused hitting goes a long way to producing runs.
This was a great bounce back game after a subpar win the week before. It is difficult to play good every week, but it was great to see guys knock the ball all over the park.
We now face a couple of weeks of uncertainty as Covid threatens us with a second wave. If we get a couple of weeks off that’s ok for some older bodies. Everyone out there stay safe, if you are like me and don’t generally like many people social distancing shouldn’t be too much of a problem. As Jerry Springer used to say “Until next time, take care of yourselves, and each other”
A beautiful spring day greeted the Snakes Alives as they prepared to take on the City Nine at Pamela Anderson Fields. The lads were keen to atone for the previous week’s defeat, but things were made a little more difficult with the news that Funky Cold KAJINA would miss time with a knee injury sustained on the rock hard surface at Norman Bates Reserve. Mister Freeze and The Fenomenon returned from a week off to bolster the ranks, and once again Vanilla Slice took the pill as not Will Smith called “play ball”.
Wolverhampton’s favourite son 55 Shades of Dan got busier than a mosquito on Maslins Beach grabbing the first two outs before a single and a Fendog fly ended the inning. The good guys threatened in the first with a cheeky single to Fenway followed by walks to the Cave Darter and Kymbolicious but an unlucky line drive from the Vdub Brewing Co found its way into the A2000 of the visiting verper for an inning ending double play.
The score remained donuts through three before the City Nine centrefielder went large over the tru-link fence to put the visitors up 1-0 in the 4th. Our boys looked to even things up with a walk to Oysters Senior followed by a marathon nine pitch walk to Oysters Junior, setting the table for a Bonny Bed-Melia sac bunt to move the brothers into scoring position. It was all for nought when a pop fly followed by yet another snaffled smashed line-drive, this time off the bat of Fendog Millionaire ended yet another promising build up as the baseball gods said “not this time party people”.
Top five saw the visitors add another with a leadoff triple and an error giving the FABALS a 2-0 lead. A hard smash was then tracked down beautifully by Van Wilder-Party Liaison at rightfield before he screamed “you haven't lived until you've shot-putted blitzed on Jager!", confusing the runner on first who froze, allowing Wilder to double him off first and extinguish the threat.
So at the bottom of the 5th in a game that is only allowed to go seven due to ridiculous rules that should have been changed when Division 3 went to Sundays (yes, this is a continuing theme you may tire of but sometimes I need to vent) , the Snakes needed to get busy. And that’s what we did – in fact we got busier than a Collingwood supporter in a corn-on-the-cob eating contest.
Unstoppable Pecs Machine walk, Caramel Slice HPB, Brewing Co walk, Oystesr Senior reached on error, Oysters Junior Sac fly, 55 Shades single, Van Wilder HPB. Then the big one, a beautiful triple treat with added goosestepping from Mister Freeze, before a Fenway hit by pitch completed the magnificent seven (another rule that should have gone out…sorry, I digress). HSR welcomed the respite from colouring in circles and we went to the 6th with a 7-2 lead.
The Unstoppable Pecs machine closed it out and it was time to retire for some tasty beverages and some more W’s from the 4s and 6s.
All that was left was for some cleaner to fail protocol, infect some punters at a party and ruin the chance to play or beautiful game for hopefully not too long. Stay safe beautiful peeps, I hope to see you all on the diamond real soon.
On the second consecutive perfect Saturday for baseball (25 degrees, slight breeze, and a 1008.2 hPa barometer reading) the division 6 bays took on the Angels of Adelaide.
On the 14th November 2020 on GBC diamond #2, the div 6 tigers defeated the plucky Adelaide outfit 12-5. In a high hitting encounter (both teams with 10 plus hits) it was your own team, the "working class battlers", who performed slightly better in all aspects of the game to ride out a 7-run win.
Emma Young, Wayne Hughes and David Jucha being the pick of our batters with plenty of good hits between them. Jason King and Connor Major (coming off the bench) also provided some green RBI line drives.
Everyone else seemed to either get a hit and/or foul a ball straight off their own foot and/or pull a hamstring which was nice. Not the injury part, the getting a hit part.
Div 7 (red) hosted the Adelaide Angels. There were a lot of great things to take away from the game.
Shane “MoneyBall” Smallacombe was tossed the ball to get things started.
The weather was stunning.
The scorers did an awesome job coloring in a lot of runs.
The two young GBC umpires were faultless.
The supporters were very patient.
The game was over quick.
Did I say the weather was stunning?
Anyway, it’s character building to be on the ass end of an absolute thumping.
The only was is up.
