1sts vs Sunshine - Lost 1-2
For the second time in two weeks the 1st have been beaten at the death. This time it was 2 - 1 at Sunshine in a very good game that went 10 innings. Tied 1 all after 9 innings Sunshine managed to squeeze a run across the plate for the win in the bottom of the 10th.
Andy Mann & Jonathon Wiggins again did an excellent job before Daryn Cassidy came on to close. Andy Mann started and went 6 innings on 3 hits 5 strike outs and 1 earned run. Jonathon Wiggins relieved for 2 innings 2 hits 2 strike outs and no runs.
Greg Wilshire, one of the premier pitchers in the competition, started for Sunshine and went 4 innings on 1 hit 8 strike outs and no runs. He was relieved by James Ross who went 4 innings for 3 hits 5 strike outs and 1 earned run. Lindsay Webb closed for Sunshine and got the win on 2 innings no hits 2 strike outs and no runs.
Daryn Cassidy came into the game and unfortunatley took the loss on 2 innings for 3 hits 1 strike out and 1 earned run as the Sunshine hitter was able to get around on an inside fastball and drive home the winning run with a single to leftfield.
The 1sts once again had their chances to win with the bases loaded in the top of the 9th but couldn't score. It is these little chances that you have to take and it is the difference between winning a game by 1 run and losing by 1 run.
Doubles to Matty Houlden ( 1 rbi ) & Gavin Van Shie. 2 singles to Daryn Cassidy.
This week sees the first of many midweek games. The first on Thursday at 6:30pm out at Altona.
2nds vs Sunshine - Lost 5-12
The week did not start all that well with Liam Davine, Mark Deany, Ben Telford & Daniel Kitch all out with injuries. Nonetheless we fielded a young and very talented team against Sunshine, albeit a number of players fielding out of position. All signs pointed to bouncing back from last week when we jumped out of the blocks scoring 3 in the first. Once again Lenny Chiverton was on base everytime I looked, big hits including a double to Telen Stanfield and multiple hits from Andrew Fennell were the standouts in the box. Tristan Field threw 45 strong pitches, having to be spared for mid-week duties this week. This set ourselves up for a solid performance, unfortunately as the game progressed the team lost its spark from the first couple of innings and slowly Sunshine got on top.
Brent Davine showed us we have another option for the mound as he realed in Sunshine’s hitters in the later innings. He did a great job under pressure. Lenny, Telen and somehow Andrew Fennell led the way on the bases with a bunch of stolen bases.
We now focus our attention to next week & Malvern and the return of Liam Davine & Ben Telford from injury.
2nds vs Essendon - Lost 2-18
In a game plagued by errors there were some shining lights. Alex Hondo pitched very well giving our fielders all the opportunities in the world to get the outs required. Lenny came up with 2 hits and got on base with every at bat. Brent Davine was very sturdy at 3 rd base allowing nothing past. Telen knocked in our first run for the year with a big double and made some very impressive plays at short.
Not executing the fundamentals of baseball (ie playing catch) eliminated all chance the team had of starting the year with a win. Training and hard work will assist in this area. In all fairness to the team, the 11 guys on the list had never played with more than 3 other guys from the team. As the bonding evolves, so will our win column.
3rds vs Sunshine - Lost 2-13
4ths vs Sunshine - Won 20-1
Women's Division 2 vs Werribee - WON 12-7
Under 18 State vs Upway Ftg - Lost 5-1
Under 16 State vs Essendon - Won 3-1
Under 16 Metro vs Blackburn - Lost 0-16
Under 14 vs Malvern - Won 25-5
A fantastic start to the season which saw Melbourne jump out of the blocks and never look back. Brandon Hough was good on the mound and Jack Scheffer relieved well. Both pitchers had good pace and were too strong for Malvern on the day. It was not only defence that saw Melbourne through, Brandon, Jack had multiple hits and a number of others had hits on the day as well. Also a very pleasing thing was to see good team batting at times with Seb driving in a run by hitting the ball the other way, and Tomy foulling of a couple of pitches before drawing a walk at an important time. Thanks to all the parents who helped set up the ground at the start of the game.
Little League
Our U12’s got off to a great start in a round robin carnival at Cheltenham on Sunday. With a large batch of first time players and a very young squad, we were not expecting to be anything more than competitive. We lost the first game to Fitzroy 13-2 but showed some encouraging signs of natural ability.
In the second game, we took on Doncaster and had an impressive win 10-7 then won the 3 rd. game against the highly fancied Bonbeach 10-9. We rotated players throughout the day in different positions and each player managed to have positive input into the 3 games. There were few errors during the day which shows how quickly our players are picking up the game. Most importantly, everyone enjoyed the day.
Thanks to the parents who helped out during the day and, like the players, had a crash course in baseball.
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