Grand Final Game 2
Essendon 5 Defeated Blackburn 4
Congratulations to the Essendon Baseball Club, Division 1 Champions three years in a row.
Hear from Essendon Manager Peter Giles following the win.
Hear from Blackburn's Adam Bright
Coming into the game with the series tied both pitchers took up where they left off. They last matched up against each other in the first game of the series on Tuesday night. Andy Mann for Melbourne was showing great control and keeping hitters off balance, whilst John Hussey for Blackburn was hitting spots.
Burton of Melbourne singled in the 1st whilst Blackmore did the same in the 2nd, no runs came of this but the signs were that the hitters on both teams were looking to take control. Kent (the Melbourne catcher) had something to say about that when he caught Rogers stealing to end the 2nd. Blackburn took that in their stride and starting seeing the ball in the 3rd when they strung 4 hits together courtesy of Dicker, Bertrand, Tierney and Berg with an early sac bunt from Maurer. Melbourne’s defence (as usual) minimised the damage and kept the Orioles to 2 runs.
Both team’s defences took control of the game during the middle innings. Blackburn had the edge with a 2 run lead but Melbourne never looked out of it. The Demons made their attitude obvious when Kent homered off the first pitch he saw in the 6th to halve the deficit, Melbourne now trailing 2-1. Both teams added a run in the 7th, courtesy of singles to Rogers, Hunter and Dicker (Blackburn) and Shiels (Melbourne) to keep it tight.
In the 7th Blackburn’s bats fired again with hits to Tierney, Booth and Bookluck. A pitch also hit Rogers, which was enough to plate two runs giving Blackburn the edge at 5-2. The score didn’t change after that. Melbourne singled twice in the remaining innings via Kent to make it 3 for the game and a triple short of the cycle (a real captain’s knock from the veteran). Shiels also singled in the 9th to keep the Demons alight but it wasn’t enough as Blackburn’s pitching proved too good on the day.
Make no mistake this was a fantastic semi final series. Australian local baseball at its best. Either team could have taken it out. Apart from the middle game when Blackburn won 7-0 no one really knew who would take it out until the end. In the 9th when Melbourne were down by 3 runs and 2 out you could still sense that little bit of hope.
Melbourne will go away from the season having risen from Division 2 to be a Division 1 finalist 3 years running. Their expectations this season would have been high as they came into the semi finals as the stronger team. It looks like they have had enough of the bridesmaid role and will be looking to do whatever it takes to nail it next summer. Blackburn meanwhile looks strong and has depth in their pen but was pushed all the way by the Demons. They now have a 48-hour break before match 1 of the Grand Final series where they face up to the smoking bats of Essendon.
Geelong Vs. Essendon
In the game 3, winner take all decider between the bombers and the baycats, the score doesn’t look fantastic for the latter. After two long games and use of the Geelong arms, they started with James Woods who got out of the first inning comfortably despite the Essendon hitters making solid contact. The second inning was a different story, in game breaking fashion the bomber bats came alive, starting with a Tim Sullivan homerun to left (two hits in the inning), including a Brett Tamburrino 3 run double and finishing with a Jared Cruz 3 run homerun (two hits in the inning) to see the score reading 10-0 and Chris Webb on the hill.
Gareth Formisano, the game 1 starter for Essendon took the hill again and looked in control despite giving up two hits in the first and one in the second.
Tamburrino knocked another run in during the third (his seventh RBI for the weekend) and the score settled at 11-0.
The Geelong hitters needed to produce something short of a miracle, but as Cameron Forbes came to the hill in the fourth for the Baycats the bombers capitalized on some errant throws and scored another 4 runs taking the score to 15-0.
Stuart Barnes took over in the 5th for Geelong and Shane Lindsay pitched the bottom of the inning for the bombers who rolled out Abels in the 6th and McIntyre in the 7th.
The end score of 19-0 was not reflective of the Baycats season but again proved pitching to be the integral part of a successful 3 game series campaign. As Geelong enter the off-season just missing out yet again, the Bombers look for a third premiership in a row as they take on Blackburn who they faced two years ago.
Both clubs should be congratulated on how they hosted the games this weekend, in yet another showing of strong volunteer and supporter bases, baseball was represented well to the impartial onlooker.
Cam Gleeson
Pictures from today's games can be seen here.
In a sensational morning of baseball, held in perfect conditions at the Farm Road ground in Cheltenham, Cheltenham, Waverley and Newport reigned supreme.
Nerves were on edge, and the atmosphere at the ground was electric, as all teams prepared to do battle. All teams were extremely well supported by family, friends, and club members, which really added to the tension.
The tightest of the Grand Finals was between the evenly matched Under 18 teams, Cheltenham and Waverley, with Cheltenham winning a tense battle 2 - 1. The defensive efforts of both teams were to be admired, and it was obvious from the first pitch that this was going to be a game to remember.
In another high standard game, Waverley were too good for Cheltenham in the Under 16's taking the game 6 runs to 3. The Under 14's saw a runaway win to the very strong Waverley unit as they defeated a gallant Sandringham 16 - 7, and in the Under 12's Newport held out a fast finishing Waverley 23 runs to 16.
Congratulations to all teams on the way the games were played, and sincere thanks to all the Umpires for the way they handled all games.
The Cheltenham Baseball Club again need to be thanked for their fantastic support of junior baseball, and in the manner in which they presented their grounds.
Springvale and Werribee will go to Game 3, to be played at Springvale at 2.00pm on Sunday March 2, after the series was levelled at one a piece after a dramatic Game 2 12th inning decider win to Springvale.
The winner will take on Williamstown next Wednesday, March 5 at Melbourne Ball Park, after they defeated Moorabbin in their series 2 - 0. No doubt Williamstown will hope for another long and arduous Game 3 for both Springvale & Werribee as they sit back and relax.
In a great day for Women's baseball at the Springvale Baseball Club ground, Springvale took out the Division 1 Pennant with a 6 - 3 win over a plucky Footscray outfit. This completed a fantastic season for the Springvale Girls, who answered every challenge thrown at them.
In Division 2 Werribee took the honours over a gallant Waverley 6 - 2, and in Division 3 Bundoora finished off a dominant season with a 13 - 9 win over Newport/Essendon.
Essendon and Blackburn made sure that Geelong and Melbourne had to earn their spot in the Division 1 Grand Final by taking it to Game 3 in each series. Both games to be played on Sunday March 2 at 2.00pm, with Geelong hosting Essendon, and Blackburn hosting Melbourne.
Both games are sure to go down to the wire, as all four teams vie for a spot in the Grand Final series which commences with game 1 at Melbourne Ball Park on Tuesday March 4.