Game reports by: Neil Barrowcliff
The Australian schoolboys team has played their first four games of a 23 game tour across Oregon, Washington, California and Arizona. Over the weekend they played two days of double headers against Clackamas Community College in Oregon and Showtime Baseball, a team made up of high school All-Stars from Washington.
Game 1 vs. Clackamas Community College, Oregon
Barrett was the starting pitcher and retired the first three hitters in good style. Clackamas opened the scoring in the 2nd on the back of two hits and a walk to take an early 1 – 0 lead. Australia was able to tie the game in the 4th when McCallum walked, stole second and scored on Rawlinson’s base hit up the middle. Rawlinson was then able to move over to third on Holding’s deep fly ball to left field and scored on King’s single to right field, resulting in a 2-1 lead. However, Clackamas scored four for the innings and were now back in front 5 – 2.
We responded in great style in the 5th when Neunborn led off with a single, Frew walked, Turnbull singled and we had loaded bases with none out. McCallum then doubled to left centre to score two, and then a wild pitch and an overthrow on the same play, resulted in Turnbull and McCallum both coming home, scoring four of our own and once again taking the lead.
Clackamas were able to tie it up again in the 6th, so going into the final innings the game was locked up at 6 – 6.
Frew drew a lead off walk, and then Turnbull also walked. McCallum laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move them over to second and third. With two out, Holding also walked and then King, in a great piece of two out clutch hitting, doubled to right centre to score all three and retake the lead. Dejong then shut them down in the 7th and we had taken out the first game of the tour 9 – 6.
Game 2 vs. Clackamas Community College, Oregon
We opened the scoring in the second when McCallum walked and stole second. Holding moved him over to third and then he scored on King’s fielder’s choice. Clackamas replied straight away with two runs so they were now in front 2 – 1.
Clackamas bunched together another bunch of hits in the 3rd to score another three and the scoreline was out to 5 – 1.
D’Avoine came on to pitch for the start of the 4th and after keeping them scoreless that inning, Clackamas were then able to score a further three runs in the 5th and it was now 8-1 their way. Our own bats were struggling a little with only three base hits in the first five innings.
Clackamas scored a further run in the 6th and the final scoreline was 9-1.
Game 3 vs. Showtime Baseball, Washington
It was a real pitcher’s duel to start with the first three innings being scoreless from both teams. Enciondo was our starting pitcher and he was doing a great job, striking out four without conceding a hit.
Then in the 4th innings our bats really came to life when our first five hitters in Neunborn, Frew, Turnbull, McCallum and Holding all hit consecutive singles. We did leave loaded bases out there but scored three runs to take the lead 3 – 0.
Quirk singled to lead off the 5th and was moved to second on Neunborn’s hit-run. Frew then singled to bring Quirk home and we had extended our lead to 4 – 0.
We scored again in the 6th in what Head Coach, Peter Giles, calls a team run. McCallum led off with a double, then Holding ground out the opposite way to move him over to third, and he scored on King’s sacrifice fly. Showtime opened their account in the 6th mainly due to two costly fielding errors and scored twice to make it a 5 – 2 scoreline going into the last innings.
Enciondo came out of the game after throwing six innings and giving up only three hits while striking out six, and giving up no earned runs. Whitehead came on to start the 7th and threw a tidy inning to close out the game with a 5-2 win.
Game 4 vs. Showtime Baseball, Washington
Whitehead led off the game with a double, and Turnbull walked. A successful double steal saw us with runners on second and third but we left them both out there. Steedman started for us and was immediately on song striking out three in his first two innings.
We got on the scoreboard in the 3rd when Frew led off with a single and then stole second. Turnbull moved him over to third and Frew, in a great piece of heads up running, was able to score on a pass ball, which really didn’t get that far away from the catcher. McCallum then smashed a double to right field, moved to third on a wild pitch, and was scored on a nice piece of team hitting by D’Avoine. In the meantime, Steedman was doing a great job keeping the opposition hitters quiet and so at the end of three innings we were up 2 - 0.
In the 4th, Steedman gave up a run and was relieved by Rawlinson. He’d been terribly unlucky with a cheap error, a chinker over second base, and a soft ground ball which King had covered at first but it hit the base and deflected away from him. Rawlinson did a terrific job coming on with loaded bases and one out and not allowing another run to score. He was helped out by Quirk who threw a runner out at home plate from right field. So at the end of four innings it was 2 – 1 our way.
We gave ourselves a little insurance run in the 5th when McCallum and D’Avoine hit consecutive doubles to extend our lead to 3 – 1. Rawlinson then struck out three hitters to take us into the 6th.
Another three runs in the 6th and we were out to 6 – 1 courtesy of three walks and a hit to Frew. Showtime hit back with two runs of their own but were aided by a couple of infield hits and an error from ourselves.
Then in the 7th, we scored seven runs to blow the game apart with three walks and hits to King (two for the innings), Whitehead and Frew. Rawlinson came out of the game and he’d done a sterling job coming in in a tough situation and really getting us out of trouble. For the second time today, Whitehead came on to pitch in the 7th and had another cheap innings to finish off the game winners 13 – 3.
All three pitchers had done a really good job and eight out of the nine starters had scored a run, and seven different guys had got a base hit so it was a real team effort. Frew did well with the bat collecting three hits and three RBIs.
The team had a rest day yesterday, today they play a double header against Lower Columbia Community College in Washington.
For more updates about the tour visit baseball.com.au or schoolsports.edu.au.