1sts vs Cheltenham Midweek - Won 4-3
The run of midweek success (relative anyway) has continued with the 1sts defeating Cheltenham 4 - 3 on Thursday night Surrey Park. After a much improved showing last Sunday against Malvern the players continued that form for a well deserved win. Victorian State U/18 rep Andy Mann who recently returned from Perth got the win for Melbourne. Coach Andrew Fennell came on in relief and held Cheltenham who were starting to threaten late in the game.
Excellent form in the field from Chris Cassidy at First and Australian rep Brad Harman at Short combined well to get a number of important outs. Batting form continued from last Sunday with a number of hits at important times. Although too many runners were left on base, the bats are improving. Slowly.
The two sides meet again on Sunday at Cheltenham.
1sts vs Cheltenham Sunday - Won 2-1
The 1sts now have their first win, first win over 9 innings after defeating Cheltenham 2 -1 on Sunday at Cheltenham. It was a very blustery day with a howling gale blowing in from centrefield all day making hits for both sides hard to come by. Leading 2 - nil into the bottom of the 9th, the first remained calm after a run scored and hung on for the well deserved victory.
Daryn Cassidy was outstanding on the mound for the 1sts going the distance for the win. It was a fantastic pitching performace in only his second outing in over a year. His stats were 9 innings on 6 hits with 5 strikeouts and 1 earned run.
As with the midweek game, Cheltenham tried a number of pitchers over the game with this time, Kable Hogben taking the loss for the Rustlers.
Outstanding defensive play from Brad Harman at short who saved a run with a clutch play by picking up the ball on a hard hit ball up the middle and gunning the runner out at the plate. Brad is on his way back to America in a couple of weeks so get down to see him play while you still can.
While getting runners on all day wasn't the issue, scoring them was and finally in the 8th after getting runners on, Sean Edwards smashed the ball through the wind and over right-field to score two.
Hits went to Sean Edwards ( double ) Chris Cassidy ( 2 singles ) and singles apiece to Brad Harman & Matty Houlden
Women's Division 2 vs Bye
2nds vs Cheltenham - Lost 2-7
Ben Cull, Jack Rintoul, Nick Dundon & Adam Promnitz all made their 2nds debuts for the season this week.
With the ball, Bryce Taylor once again got us into the 5 th inning throwing his usual 60% strikes. Ben Telford relieved and once again kept the opposition limited to chances.
With the bat, Ben Cull got a hard hit single to centre, Brent Davine got a single to right & Ben Telford hit a double into right. It was very tough conditions to hit in, as there was an extremely strong wind blowing in from left, which made anything in the air a routine fly ball.
With the glove, Ben Cull made a whole bunch of solid plays at 1 st, Jack Rintoul blocked everything behind the dish & Liam Davine showed off his arm in right.
The game was won in situations where there were bases loaded and a big hit scored multiple runs. We loaded the bases twice but couldn’t get that big hit. In the 2 times Cheltenham did it, they managed to get that hit. This was the only thing that split the two teams.
This was a game the guys should be proud of.
3rds vs Cheltenham - Lost 4-21
It was a relatively normal week for the Melbourne Threes – if you ignore the fact that half the team had been called up to the seconds. Had Jamie Hough not been available for his first 3s game we would have been down to 5 players.
Here comes the fourths to the rescue? Well not so much - they were having issues of their own with only seven regular players.
Here comes the ring-ins to the rescue? Absolutely, Gavin Mann added the 3s to his 2007/2008 4s and 2nds tally, after a false start the week before Mark Scheffer got to get his uniform dirty and Björn Lahde made his all time baseball debut with little more advice than “see ball –hit ball”.
Our objective was clear - we were to have a bit of fun and while Cheltenham quickly compiled a very green score book Mark Scheffer was compiling notable mentions of his own. Mark demonstrated that he was not only willing to play, but also willing to coach third base – on the condition he could take his cup of tea with him of course.
This report may be mostly frivolous but it needs to be said that the 3s and 4s would not have been able to play had it not been for Brock Donley and Gavin Mann. After the BUAV website indicated a league umpire would be provided it was only luck that saw Brock down early and willing to umpire the 3s when the league umpire did not materialise. And after filling in for the 3s Gavin Mann went above and beyond the call and called the 4s. Both these gents have made a habit of making “extra curricular” contributions to our club in the last few years and it shouldn’t go without recognition and gratitude.
Oh yeah and Shaun Mead got a hit. A point only made due to the fact that no one else did.
4ths vs Cheltenham - Won 10-9
No match report submitted. So lets assume that Cheltenham scored 9 runs in the top of the first and then Melbourne scored 10 runs with 2 out in the bottom of the last to take the win.
Masters vs Greensborough - WON 14-8
We were wrong.
Here at Batchat, like all fine upstanding publications we recognise the importance of being truthful and accurate at all times. As it turns out, in last week's edition, the USC coaching days is not actually the University of Southern California but in fact United Sports Coaching. Batchat would like to apologise for any confusion, misrepresentation or.. I could only think of 2. The head coach is Ryan Camov, who is a state U/14 coach. More info coming as it comes to hand.
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