It was a fierce and nail-biting fight to the very last batter on Sunday against Gawler up north.
Gawler’s starting pitcher chewed through our line-up quickly showing no mercy for our batters in the box. Unable to get bat to ball, we found ourselves down 3-0 after the first two innings.
The Rangers expertly ran the bases and took every opportunity to advance their lead - soldiering on to score another two runs in the third.
The outlook on the remaining few innings was grim and the unwelcome feeling of defeat had well and truly set in for the Tigers.
Needing to break their momentum, Kai stepped up for the team and made his season debut on the hill. Making a statement, Kai shut down the over-confident Rangers and closed out the inning with an easy pop up to Angus at third and sat them down with a KC.
Between Kai staking a flag in Gawler’s mound and Anna taking two in the back for the team like an absolute champion (eyeballing their pitcher the whole way to first base!), the team brewed up a strength I don’t think most of our spectator-parents knew they had.
Inspired, down 5-0 and realising they had nothing left to lose, a new Tigers team stepped up to the plate. And they came back with a vengeance!
Scoring 6 runs with a single to Sam and a double to Kai, they took the lead 5-6 – exhausting the Ranger’s star pitcher’s pitch count.
Backing up his RBI double, Kai got back on the mound to strike out two more in the bottom of the fourth, holding them 5-6.
The Tigers kept their heads and as one screaming, terrifyingly excited team, whacked in another run in the fifth; another RBI base hit for Sam, we now led 5-7.
It all came down to the Rangers and their last opportunity to try and take back the game.
It was loud.
It was intense.
And it was amazing!
But the Tigers stayed strong and unified. The pressure didn’t fathom them an iota!
Gawler scored their first batter across the plate, but Kai struck out the next two ruthlessly.
Only one out stood in the way to seal the Tiger’s first win in two seasons.
With loaded bags, the Rangers just scraped in another run in a close play at home to tie the game, 7-7, denying us a win. But we still had a chance to keep it at a draw.
Two runners still on, hearts pounding, parents, coaches and players screaming - the Tigers were ready. And in a final, heart-stopping (but beautiful) play, Angus smoothly picked up a slow-roller at third and rocketed it across the field to Callum at first for the out!
What a game!
I am so proud of what they achieved in those two hours on Sunday and they should be super proud of themselves. Their resilience and growth as a team this weekend was inspiring and incredible to be a part of. They have found a new level of strength within themselves and awakened a beast that is hungry for more.
We now have our first point of the season – but, heck, it was worth two!
With our 3rd straight home game in a row we are getting pretty familiar with our surrounds, that is affectionately known as the Back Diamond. With support from our 13-2’s this week we were poised for our first win of the season…and with a score line of 9-10 we weren’t far off it, it came down to the wire….
Beau started our game off atop the hill this week. It took Beau an innings to find his confidence with Goodwood taking advantage of this running in 5 runs from 11 at bats. After 7 at bats, Beau started honing in on Noah’s glove at catcher getting 3 outs from the next 4 at bats, including his first standing K2 (KC) for the game.
With Bailey leading off at the top of the order, she took the first strike for the team before slotting one through to short stop, beating the throw to get on as our lead off runner. With Noah getting walked in the 2 hole, pushing Bailey into scoring position at 2nd, we weren’t able to capitalise on this leaving 2 on base to finish off the bottom of the 1st down 0-5.
Beau came out in the 2nd after finding his inner beast. He struck out 3 of the next 4 batters for a quick end to the top of the 2nd after 23 pitches. Inspired by Beau’s 4 up, 3 down efforts on the mound, we managed to score 2 after Flynn was walked eventually coming home on a wild pitch. Joaquin also scored after a couple of stolen bases coming home on another wild pitch.
Kai came on to start our 3rd innings. By this stage Goodwood were starting to fire on 4 cylinders, letting loose on some of Kai’s bullets. Goodwood were fortunate enough to jag a couple of infield home runs punching 2 hits to deep centre right. Mixed in amongst these hits were a couple of great catches by Kai on the mound and Joaquin at Shortstop, just before Kai finished off the innings with a solid called 3rd strike for the 3rd out of the innings.
Up 10-2, Goodwood made a pitching change that held us to a very quick 3 up, 3 down batting innings with their pitcher throwing down some rapid-fire bullets holding us at bay. This was to be their undoing though after Kai held them in the 4th for a quick 4 up, 3 down Sturgeon style throwing 14 pitches for the side away. Coming into the bottom of the 4th, the Tigers were a little weary watching the laser beams thunder down in the 3rd. With this untamed power, their pitching soon starting to fall apart at the seams after Flynn was initially struck out for the first out of the innings and a 1-3 bleeder by Owen who surprised himself hitting the ball back to the pitcher for the 2nd out of the innings. That’s where Goodwood’s luck seemed to run out with their pitcher imploding, walking the next 7 batters, ultimately giving us the only mercied innings of the game with 7 runs taking the score to 9-10 after 4 innings. Noah sustained a fast ball to the left knee before Beau took another fast ball at next bat, copping one to the back of the neck, after the ball deflected off the bottom of his helmet. Beau, later that night, managed a trip to the Women’s and Children’s in the back of an ambulance with delayed concussion. Good to know he was home safe and sound later that evening after several scoops of ice-cream to help sooth the pain. A couple of days R&R and some mummy loving…all was good.
I won’t go into detail about the top of the fifth, other than to say the few runs they managed to get over the plate were to no avail, with the score reverting back to 9-10 due to time getting the better of us.
Big shout out to our 13-2’s this week (Owen, Harrison, Matt, Joaquin and Marcus) helping us get a team on the field in 14’s. With a young skilled squad of baseballers in our 13’s, our future is looking bright.
Codeword ‘Tigers’.
After another long trek this time to Gawler the boys were struggling to get their heads in the game. Kody once again was amazing on the hill striking out a rare 4 in the 1st inning. After 4 innings we trailed 1-5. I gave them a little rev up before the 5th and we scored a pair and held them to make it 3-5 with 1 dig to go. We were so of a sudden up and about and piled on 5 in the top half of the inning and just had to hold them for the win. They scored 2 and had 2 outs with a runner on 3rd. A little dribbled to Kody at first who fielded it and stomped on the bag for a thrilling 1 run victory. We played very well as a team again and everybody chipped in when we needed it. Special mention to Ethan who came up from the 2s team and took a timely catch in centre field. We now have 2 wins for the season which is 1 more than the entire last season. Great work lads
The Henley Tigers have continued their impressive start to the season with a strong win against the fancied Indians.
The Tigers shut the Indians down in the 1st inning with Marcus Pycock making his 2nd double play of the season by making a quick throw to first base after catching a pop-up.
The young Tigers hitters continued their 1st inning dominance with a Mercy inning to take an early 5-0 lead. The lead was established by combining patient hitting with aggressive baserunning. Both Marcus and Harrison contributed early runs.
The Indians bounced back with 3 runs in the top of the 2nd inning. Joaquin helped limit the damage by making a terrific catch on a line drive to save 2 runs.
The Tigers added 3 runs of their own in the bottom of the 2nd inning to reinstate the 5-run lead. Both Joaquin and Marcus scored after Joaquin drew a leadoff walk followed by Marcus’s double to left-centre field.
The Tigers limited Goodwood to a single run in the 3rd inning. Middle infielders Matthew and Joaquin combined well on a 6-4 play. This was followed up by Joaquin making a nice catch at Shortstop.
Matthew Scott picked up his second safe hit of the season with a single up the middle in the 3rd inning. This was followed by Owen Monaghan picking up a safe hit in his first at bat in Division 2. Matthew continued his hot on base streak with a Hit by Pitch in the 4th inning.
Young Joaquin Conesa was given the ball in the 4th inning to finish the game. Joaquin picked up 5 strikeouts in 2 innings work. An impressive 62% of Joaquin’s pitches were strikes, demonstrating how well his pitching is developing.
All in all, another fun and impressive display by the young Tigers line-up. The team is building along nicely for the season ahead.
The U11’s had their first away game against the Sturt which saw us come home with a 9-8 win – the first for the season. Mason led off with a hit to start the game, followed by a couple of walks and another safe hit by Jimmy. We scored the maximum amount of runs (4) and headed on to the field. Mason was on the bump for the first time this season, showing some heat with 2 strikeouts. We struggled to get the 3rd out and with Mason reaching the pitch count we brought in Zac to finish the inning. After only scoring 1 run in the 2nd inning, Zac fought back, striking out the side. Sturt answered back by doing the same. Natalia made her debut as a pitcher and showed great promise by throwing a lot of strikes. Sturt scored 4 runs and took the lead at the end of the 3rd . Down by 3 runs going into the 4th inning, we needed a big inning to get back in the game. Patient batting and hits to Zac and Beau allowed us to score 4 runs and take the lead 9-8. Jimmy came into close the game and collected 2 quick outs. With loaded bases and the tying run on 3rd, the ball was hit hard at Pippa, deflected to Zac in centre field who fired the ball to Mason at 2nd base for the force out. During training we worked on being more aggressive in the batters box. This certainly paid off when it putting into action this week. Really proud of the team’s effort and the way we are all beginning to gel.
