Mens 1sts lost to Blackburn 5-8
A disappointing loss that came in the final inning. Darryn Cassidy started on the mound and was sensational giving up 1 run in 7 innings. At the bottom of the seventh the score was 5-1 Melbourne's way and things were looking pretty good.
After shutting Blackburn down mid-week (2-2 Draw), Brendan Ratcliffe was given the closing duties for two innings. Unfortunately, a couple of hits and errors combined with a 3 run homer, allowed Blackburn to accrue 7 runs in the 8th. In the 9th, Melbourne had the drawing run at the plate but couldn't find the extra hit needed to extend the game.
Mens 2nds beat Essendon 12-6
The seconds have scored their biggest and best win of the year after thrashing Blackburn 12-6 at their retarding basin. It was a typical hot summers day and having lost 18-1 in their previous encounter, Melbourne were keen to improve. At the top of the first the obligatory 1 run was scored before errors allowed Blackburn to score 3. However Melbourne kept calm to hit back taking the lead in the 4th after scoring 1 in the 2nd and 4th innings. With the hits flowing for Melbourne, Blackburn changed pitchers in an attempt to slow the rot but it only made things worse as a couple more runs were walked over the plate. A fantastic day out with superb pitching by Tim Frost and well closed out by Andrew Mann. The highlight offensively was a two run home-run to Nathan Jones over left field.
Mens 3rds lost to Blackburn 8-3
No match report submitted
Mens 4ths lost to Blackburn 25-5
No match report submitted
Ladies - Chelsea beat the girls 16-12
The girls played Chelsea on the weekend with a loss the week before the girls were hoping to start their new Division 2 campaign on a high with a win. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be with decisions going against both teams at times, the girls on both sides made mental errors. It was simply the team that made more errors that lost the game and on this occassion that was Melbourne going down to Chelsea 16-12.
Congratulations must go to Katrina on her pitching performances up until Christmas that see her on the table of pitching stats proving that she can keep up with the girls from Div 1 well done Trinie.
Masters lost to Springvale 2-0
No match report submitted
Under 18 Melbourne BYE
No match report submitted
Under 18 Melbourne/Doncaster lost to Cheltenham 3-8
No match report submitted
Under 16 beat Sandringham 11-2No match report submitted
Under 14 Demons beat Cheltenham 9-6
No match report submitted
Under 14 Red Sox beat SLBC Haileybury 29-3
The Red Sox consolidated their position in the top 4 with a powerful 29 3 win over a plucky but developing Haileybury at Springvale, reflecting the teams relative positions on the ladder.
Tom pitched the first 3 innings to give up only 3 runs and Hugh closed in the last 2 innings for no runs. Run scorers were Jack (5), Jai (4), Chris (3), Ravi (3), Courtney (3), Cal (3), Conor (3), Ed (3), Tom (1) and Hugh (1) from 1 at bat.
Each of the first 3 innings saw the Melbourne batters scoring the maximum 7 runs in the first innings in succession with no outs. Overall the batting was very strong from virtually everyone with Jack, Conor, Ed, and Cal all getting at least 3 hits on base in the 5 innings.
Apart from a tall lefty who was able to make a couple of big hits to the outfield, the Haileybury team is clearly very much at beginner level and hence its difficult to take anything from the game other than it was very good to see the great camaraderie amongst the team and to see them maintain their concentration through the game.
Tom pitched well for 4 strikeouts and 2 run outs at 1st from dropped third strikes with no walks and only 4 hits to get on base. Hugh followed with 3 strikeouts, 1 walk and no hits, heeding Coach Lennys request to Shut it down and lets go home!.
Under 12 Demons beat Waverley Cougars 11-1
The Demons headed out to Waverley to take on the Cougars with a Team Line Up slightly different to the previous 3 - 4 weeks.
Klara started on 2nd base and Adam on 3rd, Stephen on short, Mitchell on 2nd and Brandon on 1st. The outfield had Sebastian at left, Danyon at centre and Tim at Right. The lead off pitching was Jack to James catching behind the mask.
The Demons started with 1 run in the first with Klara coming home only to be equalled by Cougars. The Demons jumped away in the 2nd with 4 runs in from Jack, Adam, Stephen and Danyon. The Cougars went to sleep for the next 2 digs while Jack took control on the mound with 3 up, 3 down in the 2nd and 3rd digs. The Demons added another 4 runs in the 3rd dig with Sebastian, Tim, Jack and Adam coming home. The score now 9 : 1 was still not enough for the Demons as they had the Panthers reel in this kind of lead last week. Changes were made to the field with Mitchell, Ted and Patrick coming on with good contribution from these players as the game started to turn. Cougars could no longer pitch strikes and they walked 6 batters in the 5th dig whilst 7 runs were scored, we were not able to complete the dig and the scores reverted to a great victory 11:1.
2 big Highlights of the game were Klara leading the batting today with 2 safe hits before being replaced by Mitchell and Jack's display in the pitching which was great and he capped this off with 3 safe hits, 2 of these were big double baggers and crossed the plate 4 times earning him the 'man of the match'. 1 safe Hit each were also recorded for Ted, James and Tim.
There were some good pick-off attempts with one a pearler to second base by Brandon with the ball landing in Stephen's glove perfectly as the runner made his way back to base. The call was safe but I think the players and the parents perhaps thought otherwise.
Adam cleaned up one player coming in to third base with a terrific tag out.
In all, another solid performance from the young Demons who next week return to Top Spot on the ladder if they beat Blackburn at home.
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