Finals Preview 2015
The finals have arrived after most teams in Division 1 and 2 had their places booked some weeks ago. The first games begin tonight as the Division 1 semi-final series kick off. The games played tonight are the first of three. The other two are to be played on Saturday and Sunday.
Division 2 follows suit with their first round of semi-finals starting tomorrow night. Springvale sprinted their way into the finals with a late season surge and will give the other three teams plenty to think about.
The Womens Div 1 Grand Final is on this week at Melbourne Baseball Club at 4pm when Doncaster are the away team to the league leaders Springvale.
Division1
Blackburn and Melbourne meet tonight at 7.30pm at Preston to battle for the South East Conference. After the semi-final that these two played last year this should be a cracking game. Expect both teams to throw their Aces as they look to get the jump with a win in the first meeting.
Blackburn won their last game of the regular season and took top spot, meaning that they will play as the home team in two of the semi-final matches. Likely starters are Andy Mann for Melbourne and Adam Bright for Blackburn. However, having that experience on the hill is no guarantee as both teams have hitting line-ups that feature the league leaders. Watch out for Matthew Kent of Melbourne and Ross Hunter of Blackburn who are both batting around 400.
The other semi features Essendon as the home team versus Geelong. The Bombers are chasing a formidable fourth premiership in a row. Both teams are likely to throw their aces as Gareth Formisano looks like he will get the job for the Bombers and Evins should take the hill for the Baycats.
Essendon finished the season strongly although they dropped their final game. Most importantly the Bombers have accounted for Geelong in their last two meetings. The Baycats did well to account for their nearest rival Preston a few weeks ago to make the playoffs so the recent defeats to Essendon won’t be that fresh in their minds.
It could be anyone’s and it all begins tonight at 7.30pm.
Division 2
Springvale, who finished fourth, are the visiting team to Sunshine, who were top, tomorrow night at Preston in the first of a three game finals series.
The Lions surprised everyone (except themselves) when they won five in a row to end the season. Malvern were gallant and showed desperation when they won four in a row (including a gritty win over Sunshine) but then lost the last two games of the season and missed out.
The other Division 2 series sees second placed Moorabbin take on third placed Werribee tomorrow night MBP at 7.30pm. Both of these teams have shown great improvement this season and are hard to split. Ben Laux has provided the Panthers with a new found belief in his first year as their manager whilst the same can be said of the Giants boss Justin Charles. This will be a very hard fought series so get out to one of the games if you can.
Womens
Whilst the Lions stormed into the finals after just one loss for the season, a win on Saturday is not a foregone conclusion. Vic Brown of Springvale pitched a complete game in the semi so we should expect to see her on the hill again this week. Erin Collis of Doncaster was not far behind her though as she kept the Springvale hitters relatively quiet and her team in the same game right to the end.
Collis pitched well again in the preliminary last week, giving her side the start they needed to beat a determined Essendon outfit. Her extra week’s work on the hill might give her an edge on Saturday.
The batting skills in both camps are what should make the difference. Springvale have their captain Lillywhite who leads the league in batting and is ably backed up by Hough, Manzie/Novotny and the hard hitting pair of Jackson and Loon. Meanwhile at the plate Doncaster are lead by McCann (who has been unavailable for the past two weeks), Cannington, Pope, Hamilton and their decorated veteran Peterson.
Springvale have been clinical under Lillywhite in the games that I have seen this season not letting up on their opponents time after time. However, Doncaster are equally as focused so expect to see a gritty contest featuring some of Australia’s best women players.
Best of luck to all Baseball Victoria teams participating in all grades of finals this weekend.
Article by Cam Gleeson.