Cracker of a game against one of the teams fancied to challenge for the whole lot this season. Jayden was giving the ball and put in a great performance on the mound. Sturt plated an early run in the second, we tied it up in the 4th on the back of a Mason triple, with Mouse RBI single bringing him in. The pitchers traded zeros, before Sturt were able to break the deadlock in the bottom of the 6th. Another heartbreaking 1 run loss for the lads, not without opportunities, Joe & Hilly had multi hit games to give us some scoring opportunities.
HITS: Joe (3), Hilly (2), Mason, Daisy & Mouse (1).
Dusting ourselves of from the disappointment of Game 1, unfortunately game 2 was a similar theme and at stages we held a lead a couple of times in this game, but just couldn't maintain the momentum. Both Harro & Daisy pitched well, but didn't get the run support needed to trouble the Saints in the end. Two tense games with no W to show for our efforts.
HITS: Joe, Darcy, Daisy (1)
After several weeks of near misses, on this night the boys just didn't look in the hunt. Flynn toiled away on the mound, but the Hawks were the early aggressor and plated a couple in the first innings that meant we played catch up all night, and it will probably go down as a disappointing game to forget unfortunately. We get another crack at the Hawks sunday and would hope to be a little better than in this one.
HITS: Wurf, Pickles, Hill, Mouse & ERoss
In a super important game on the road we needed to get of to a good start, and that we did, plating 3 runs on the back of hits to Kai, Hank, Quals & Tyson, what a great start. Unfortunately the Saints had similar ideas and immediately responded plating 3 of their own to tie it up. With the pitchers then trading zeros, we had a battle on our hands. Unfortunately it was a case of the home team being up for the task more than us and outplaying us to come away with the victory.
Highlights would be a couple of nice plays by the ever improving Kai and the return of the big #20 Steffy. Loss makes this weeks game against fellow finals aspirant super super important.
HITS: Tyson, Henry (2), Kai, Quals, Harro (1)
After having a week off to regroup and get are batteries recharged we went past the ed to take on the saints of Sturt
We welcomed back Steff from a two year hiatus and got down to business.
We didn’t trouble the scorers in the first and despite getting runners on neither did Sturt
After 2 outs in the second Steff showed what he can do by hitting a ground rule double to centerfield and then scoring on a wild throw by short.
We went out for the second inning and the saints responded with three of their own and it could have been more if it wasn’t for Blake making a diving catch in left and Dan using his ice cream scoop to hoover everything at third.
The game settled into a pitches duel until the 5th innings where we got a run back with Kai walking reaching second on a wild pitch stealing third and coming home on Henrys hit to left.
Steff lead off the 6th with a hit by pitch advanced to second on the Justins walk and after Bailey executed a perfect get them over ground out scored after bamboozling all by going way to far around third and realizing well I might as well keep going sliding just under the tag to tie the game. Blake then reached on an infield single and after stealing second they both came home on a wild throw we take the lead 5 to 3
We flipped the ball to Steff to work the 6th and after getting 2 years of rust out settled into the task.
From here we took the game away from Sturt the excellent at bats we had at the start paying off with Kai collecting his second hit of the game Henry walking Steff and Bailey getting hit allowing the weapon the house to plate a couple with a hit to right. Followed by a hit to Alice and when the final out was made we found ourselves 11 to 3 up
Steff working the 7th for the win.
Real pleasing game the at bats where awesome going deep and hitting the ball hard all day. The defence was rock solid when it mattered and got us out of some tight jams. Welcome back Alec Stef not a bad return 2 for 3 double 2 hit by pitches 1 run and 2 innings of relieve work. Thanks buddy
2 games to go to the finals let’s make it.
We squared off at home against a team sitting in the finals mix, so knew this would be a good challenge for us.
With 9 guys ready to roll I flipped the pill to Stevo and he kicked things off with a couple of punch outs in the top of the 1st. We had some good early AB's against the Angels opener and got a couple on the board early on. The 2nd saw a new hurler for the Angels, and the home team get the first 2 guys on base, a big hit from Kloeds knocked a couple more in.
T Von Stevenhausen was sharp through the middle frames and continued to send Angels hitters back. Mags lifted one into the jet stream and we'd scored 4 more runs. The next hitter wasn't having any of this and proceeded to add a back to back siblings johnson to the day. Sid turned a triple into a double, Sadler knocked a couple around and we had jumped out in the mid innings.
We headed into the top of the 7th with a decent lead and turned the pill over to close guy PG. He got a couple of outs, he gave up a couple of hits and the Angels had pegged a few back. The 4th run coming at the expense of the coaches modelling career with a relay play spiked and a ball hopped straight into the kisser. An injury time out, blood flow stopped and we recorded the final out. Got the required 1 run back in the bottom of the 7th and the mercy was complete.
A decent team outing in the lead up to the finals, one more game awaits us before the fun stuff begins.
After suffering defeat last weekend at the hand of Rod Reddy’s mighty Rams, the Snakes Alives took the short journey up Taps to take on the Eags in a battle of 3rd vs 4th. After collecting our pitcher for the day in PC Gamer, I dropped into IKEA and we downed a bucket load of hot dogs Joey Chestnut style to fuel up for the unusual 3pm slot.
Being my first trip to Zooterville since the shiny new club rooms have been completed, I was in awe of the humongous clinical white structure as I approached the new digs. My senses were then suddenly assaulted by the pungent waftings of blood and bone that had been applied to help get all of the new plants up and about in what is a very impressive structure.
Back to the reason we came – no, not the $6 Stone and Wood Pacific Ales, but a very important ball game, and it was our turn to roll the poles first. The Bombay Basher skied one to right to kick things off, and the cloudless sky claimed the first of many victims to see the Basher reach on error. A stolen base, a Fenintendi walk, an Unstoppable Pecs Machine grounder and a Delicious Krajina sac fly later, the good guys took a 1-0 lead after a half.
The birds didn’t mess around in their half of the first, with not one but three perfectly flighted singles into the cavernous centrefield wasteland to go ahead 2-1 after one.
The Snakes showed they we were not at Rutland Avenue just to play with spiders as we got things cooking in the second. Kymbo Slice took a base on balls before reaching second on a wild pitch, a base knock from Beef Borrito tying the scores at two each. Vdub Brewing singled, Wu Tang Dan dropped a bunt and the Mumbai Masher knocked in another run. Fenintenti reached on an error before the Unstoppable Pecs Machine singled in another. Another testing fly ball from the Krajinator caused more chaos as the inning finally ended with the Tiges up 6-2. In what was becoming a day when the bats weren’t afraid, the Eags came straight back, trailing by just one before PC Gamer had seen enough and piffed a beauty down for his first “K” of the day. 6-5 Snakes after two.
We went down without troubling the SANGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! scorers before PC Gamer, with the IKEA hot dogs now fuelling the big tank, whiffed two more to shut the Eags down and give the punters on the balcony a chance to recharge their glasses.
A three spot for the Snakes with knocks to Wu-Tang Dan, Mister Freeze and a triple treat to the Jolly Jouster saw the lead balloon (if you read that as “led balloon” I can’t blame you) to 9-5. PC Gamer had found his underarm zone and gave us one more shut out inning before we layed a six-pack with some help from the blue and yellows to run out 17-7 winners with the Unstoppable Pecs Machine finishing this one off on the hill.
With a win, every starter getting some green pencil in the book and some post game hospitality from the Eagles including the aforementioned Stone and Woods, plus some tasty #BIGCANS for those that way inclined in the impressive upstairs ZooterBar area, it was a pretty good day’s work at Nathan Eagleton Oval.
The post game continued at the GBC 90th celebrations which was a very fun time catching up with so many past team mates and plenty of great friends. Massive thanks to all who organised this stellar evening. And it’s on to the Hawks……
