Match Reports
Seniors Round 15
3 February 2008
FIRSTS 5 defeated Bonbeach 4
After last weeks faultless display against Sandy, the Tigers hosted top of the table Bonbeach in yet another mini final. Befitting such a fixture the crowd certainly got its money worth with a tightly fought encounter that literally went right down to the wire.
Andrew Jones took the start and worked a scoreless first 3 innings backed up by some excellent defence highlighted by Glynn’s wonderful fly ball running back and into the right centre alley to rob the visitors of what would have been a certain extra base hit.
Meanwhile the Tigers were doing the job with the sticks, Hoppy led off the game with a single and moved to 2nd on Pete’s hit into right field. Adam bunted perfectly to set up Leon and Glynn to both collect RBI singles.
The home team tacked on a further run in the 3rd but then the visitors picked up 4 in their half of the 4th courtesy of some pretty good team hitting and aggressive running.
However for them that was to be all she wrote as far as runs were concerned with Andrew regaining his dominance on the hill before leaving the game after 5 and 2 thirds, conceding just 5 hits while picking up 5 strikeouts and walking just 2.
With Adrian Rice now on the hill the Tigers tied the game in our half of the 6th courtesy of a walk to Glynn and then a perfect hit and run by Brendan Simmons which went to the right field corner, scoreing Glynn and putting Boo on 2nd.
With the score tied the visitors got a man on first with one out in the top of the ninth and the very dangerous Rikki Johnston at bat. Rikki drove the ball up the middle but a superb diving stop by Nick Unland, flip from the ground to Hoppy and an innings ending double play. In reality words don’t do this play justice – you really had to see it – not to mention the significance it may well have played to the final scoreline.
To our half of the ninth and with one out Hoppy executes a perfect running bunt and then steals second to put the go ahead run in scoreing position. Pete unluckily lined one back to the pitcher for the 2nd out but Adam drew a walk with a very gritty at bat to get Leon to the plate. Despite only picking up the one hit Leon had smashed two balls that the right fielder is still trying to work out how he actually caught. Mindful of this Bonbeach worked very carefully and Leon also walked to load the bases.
Bring on Kimbo – a nice drive into right field and the Tigers have swept the Bluejays, all three of the wins being by one run and both the home fixtures with the winning run scored with 2 out in the ninth.
Only good sides win the one run games – very good sides do it against quality opposition.
Despite the last 2 wins against the top 2 sides we have not moved on the ladder as the other games all went according to form. But with the sides around us now having to meet each other in the next few rounds the value of these wins will be seen.
It is in our hands – keep winning and we will be there.
Bonbeach 000 400 000 4 runs 7 hits
Upwey 210 001 001 5 runs 9 hits
Hits : Hopcraft, Schroeders, Kimberley 2; Rice L, Simmons, Unland N 1
RBI’s : Kimberley 2; Hopcraft, Rice L, Simmons 1
Pitching : Jones 5.2 IP 4 runs 1 Erun 5 hits 2 BB 5 SO
Rice A 3.1 IP 0 runs 0 Eruns 2 hits 0 BB 2 SO
Footnote : last nights midweek fixture saw Bonbeach come from behind in the last inning to defeat Fitzroy 2 to 1. With all the teams in the top 5 now having played equal games the 3 way tie between ourselves, Fitzroy and Mulgrave remains.
SECONDS 9 defeated Bonbeach 6
The Tigers got off to a bit of a slow start on the weekend up against Bonbeach. Lucas got given the ball for his first start back after an ankle injury and was only able to throw one inning for us. It was a quick first inning with Lucas only throwing a handful of pitches. Molly then went out to start the 2nd and gave up a couple of early runs. With the boys being behind for the 1st time in a long time, the pressure started to mount with a couple of defensive blunders and before they knew it they were down 6-0. The boys continued to get runners into scoring position but could not capitalize early on.
Molly found his feet and finally started to get some calls go his way, unlike Ricey who was thrown out from right field on a controversal call at first base. However with the game starting to slip away the boys pulled together to get the ball rolling again. A lot of long patient at bats and some good displays of hitting by Swanno and Cheesy got the runs on the board. It took the Tigers until the last inning to sneak up and take te lead but in the end a win is a win. The 2's continue their good form with only a couple of more games in hand before the finals.
Next week sees them up against Ormond, hopefully to come away with another momumental win.
Ayresy
THIRDS 14 defeated Bonbeach 8
In a game of baseball that was far more exciting than the Claxton shield double header the night before the Tigers took on Bonbeach for third place on the ladder. With only 2 games to go in the home and away season the winner of this game has the chance to take second spot in the finals.
The Tigers cheer squad booked early for seats on the upstairs viewing area and they had plenty to cheer about particularly in the last dig. However, we had a slow start to the game with the Bonbeach pitcher being hard to get away. It was the second dig before we got a run on the board thanks to hits to Scott Ramsey who was brought home by Wozza. Bonbeach on the other hand were very aggressive in the first 2 digs stealing bases and putting in some big hits. A special mention to Wilko for his outstanding running flat out outfield catch at left field to shut them down in the second dig. After 2 the score was Bonbeach 6 to Tigers 1 and we had some batting to do.
It was not until the fifth dig that we got another run on the board courtesy of a stand up double to Wozza, who scored Jordie from first base. He needed a bit of a rest to get some oxygen back into his lungs after running that far. Unfortunately a double play shut us down before we could get any more runs. We backed up and scored 2 in the 6th courtesy of hits to David Rice, Scott, a sac fly for Chris Grey and a double for Jordie. Unfortunately we went 3 up 3 down in the 7th and with Bonbeach scoring a run in the 4th the score was Bonbeach 7 Tigers 4 as we came out for the 8th dig with 10 minutes to go.
Cheer leader Sue Ann said 10 runs for the Tigers as Sean comes up to the plate as lead off batter. He gets a single to centre field and he is pushed around to third base by a double base hit to Ricey. Bonbeach then decide to change pitchers but Scott Ramsey gets a single to right field that gets Sean home and we have the equalising run at first base with no outs. Chris Grey gets on via an error by short stop that scores Ricey. Jordie next up is our first out on an infield fly but Wozza hits one into left field that sees Scott tagged out at home plate in a flurry of dust. So we are now 2 down, with the equalising run now at third and Wozza the go ahead run at second.
Sue Ann ( AKA Wozzas mum) is getting nervous as the cheer squad starts to finds its voice big time. In a classic 2 out rally , the Tigers did not give up and were looking to forge ahead. Bonbeach then give us a couple of walks as the new pitcher had trouble finding the zone. A walk, then another error as Leigh Bertrand gets on at first and scores Chris the equalising run. Wilko, who had had a hard time at bat so far, came up with a good hit to the right field corner that scored Wozza the go ahead run and pushes Ashie to third. Ashie then gets home on the wild throw from right field. We are now 2 runs up and still batting with 2 runners on base. Back to Sean, who gets walked so bases loaded and the catchers throw back to the pitcher goes wild and Leigh gets home as Bonbeach see the game slipping away from them. Ricey has to hit the deck to avoid the first pitch but he gets hit on the third which loads up the bases. Bonbeach change their pitcher but Scott gets another single base hit that scores Wilko. Chris Grey then gets on, again courtesy of another error by the short stop. Rather than being side away Sean and Ricey get home and Scott gets to third. Scott then scores on a wild pitch and we finally go side away after scoring 10 runs as requested by Sue Ann. Errors really do hurt the fielding team as 8 of our runs were unearned.
It is now 14 to 7 Tigers way and we have to defend our lead. Ricey had pitched well all game and the Tigers were not going to let this game slip away. Bonbeach scored 1 run before another outfield fly for Scott ends the dig. A great game by the Tigers who never gave up. Batting star was Scott Ramsey who hit 4 from 5 including a double. He also had a big game in the outfield covering lots of ground. When it really counted we batted well in this come from behind win. 3 hits for Wozza, 2 for Sean and Ricey, a sac fly for Chris and single hits for Wilko, Jordie and Leigh. Still a few things to work on with the finals in 3 weeks as we had some red in our side of the book.
We are now third on the ladder one game behind Fitzroy and one game in front of Bonbeach with 2 games to go. In the last round, top of the ladder Mulgrave will play second place team Fitzroy. So we need to win the last 2 games and have Mulgrave beat the Lions which should put us into second spot. Next weekend will be big. See you at the Trivia night on Saturday night at the clubrooms then we have our last home game against Ormond Glenhuntly. All the best from the scribe.
FOURTHS 2 lost to Bonbeach 10
FIFTHS 1 lost to Waverley 18
We headed out on to the main diamond at Waverly to take on the team sitting second on the ladder in our section. This game was always going to be a tough game for us to win and we also were missing a couple of our regulars from the line up.
Overall we did not have a good day, the Waverly pitchers controlled the game and held us to a few hits. In the field we had a fairly average day with too many errors and some well placed hits from our opposition causing us to stay in the field for longer than necessary.
Some good points to be taken from the days game where.
- Thomas Kernicks senior debut was solid in centrefield and came up with a hit later in the game.
- Honest pitching performances from Narelle and Scott.
Hitting
Singles to Thomas Kernick, Scott Legge, Bobby Simonton & Tim Annett.
Next Week we face the third placed Cheltenham on the back diamond who we have played twice with one win a piece.
The forty year old fat rookie.
WOMEN had the Bye