Mens 3 rds – beat Essendon 10-7
Another awesome outing by pitcher Ry Stanes propelled the third nine to an unlikely victory over the highly favoured Essendon side. Striking out a ridiculous fourteen hitters in his six innings of work that constituted the entire game, Ry relied on a little help from his team-mates to get the other five outs. A great victory over a traditionally tough rival.
Mens 4 ths – beat Essendon 5-0
After a ten run thumping last week the boys were all fired up to get back into the winners circle this week. An excellent game on the mound by Andrew Speed in pitching a shut-out (his first) to set up a high standard and enthralling contest. Our defence stood rock solid all day keeping the Essendon base-runners from scoring when they threatened. After scoring runs in the first 2 innings we were kept scoreless until the last innings when a further 2 runs crossed the plate. Speedy finished the game in style striking out the three Essendon batters to come to the plate for a memorable win. To emphasise the dominance of Andrew Speed’s performance his stats included 11 strike-outs and giving up only 2 hits. For Melbourne hits went to Chao, Tim Donald (2), Rhett Mitchelhill (Triple), Jake O'Reilly (Double) and Peter Moore (Double).
Under 18 – beat Werribee 20-3
The team was rocked mid-week by the news that catcher Aidan Davis has a suspected dislocated knee, which he got playing footy. There should really be a clause in the player contracts prohibiting them from playing silly games like Aussie Rules during the baseball season! This left us with only 8 players for the trek down to Werribee. No doubt the team was fortified by various Big Breakfasts and McMuffin Meals along the way, because we then overperformed to give the Werribeans a 20-3 shellacking, proving that it’s quality not quantity that counts. In a most even display, all our players got on base at least once, including Hsien Tran (whose name we unfortunately misspelt last week) with a fine safe hit. Peter Jacobs filled in as catcher, and took to his old position like a duck to water - Peter was catcher when the U12s won the flag some years ago. Meanwhile Aidan did the team thing and participated in the game as first base coach.
Masters – beat Doncaster 15-5
The Masters machine travelled to the spacious confines of the new Latrobe ground on a balmy yet cool evening. We again showed the signs of a long winter making our customary fielding errors early. Fortunately we were able to slowly shake off the cobwebs so that by games-end we were functioning like a well oiled machine. The pitching duties were shared by "Meady", "Clappy" and "Smiles" who kept the Doncaster batters quiet for most of the evening. The hits flowed as we piled on 13 runs in 2 innings to put the game beyond doubt. It was good to finally get on the park for a contest following the "no show" by the opposition last week. We get to have a rest over the Melbourne Cup weekend to play our first twilight game against Blackburn at Blackburn on Monday the 8th November. |
Ladies – lost to Ormond A 9-5
The girls were defeated against a strong Ormond/Glen Huntly A side 9-5. Whilst the girls’ fielding was good, it was not as good as earlier weeks and batting was a little more difficult against the strong Ormond pitching. . The girls tried hard to pull back the difference in score but a couple of late errors gave the Ormond/Glen Huntly all the insurance they needed. We play Williamstown next week which will be a fantastic game, it would be great to see some friendly faces in support.
Under 16 – beat Blackburn 9-2
Under 14 Demons – lost to Sandringham 11-6
This week saw our boys playing Sandringham at Sandringham. In perfect conditions, our boys were competitive for the first 4 innings with the score at this point 4 - 3 Sandringham's way. We lost the game with the opposition scoring 7 unearnt runs through multiple errors in the last 2 innings, but to our boy's credit they were able to finish the game on a high collecting 4 successive hits in the last dig scoring 3 runs. This week we welcomed Campbell Wiggins to the team, and congratulate him on a solid pitching performance after some time away from the game. Ben Cull, Campbell Wiggins and Alex Hondromatidis all pitched well given the tight strike zone, and were well supported by Emerson who had a great game behind the plate. Tristan Field collected 2 safe hits, Ben Cull 1 (triple), Emerson Satur 1 (double), Chris Karabatsos 1 (double), Alex Hondo 1, Campbell Wiggins 1 and Christopher Allen 1.
Under 14 Red Sox – beat Upwey 17-4
Under 12 – drew Berwick 13-13
The Under 12's played Berwick and our "Motto" of TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) was displayed in a way that made everyone proud of our boys' efforts. The TEAM difference was demonstrated with Melbourne fighting back at 10:54 am with scores Berwick 11 to Melbourne 7 and Melbourne batting at the top of the 6th dig. Melbourne batted in 6 runs to go to a 2 run lead with Berwick stepping up for the equalizer. The Demons held Berwick to 2 runs with 2 down and bases loaded and the final batter succumbing to the relentless pressure from the Melbourne attack with the match closing in a very exciting DRAW (13 runs a piece). Both sides were treated to a spectacular competition played in glorious conditions and an audience of approx 50 witnessed a truly enjoyable conclusion to an entertaining, hard fought match. There were no single big efforts in this match. Not one boy stood out from the TEAM it was the great effort of all involved which delivered the result. As coach I can truly say this was one of the most memorable Junior matches I have witnessed for many years with both sides looking forward to a rematch later in the year. A great result which was enjoyed by players and parents one and all. Well done boys!!! |
