Another two victories by the Southern Mariners (A) squad highlighted this slate of six games between the Under 12s in the Little League Charter & Junior League Charter Academy.
Southern Mariners (A) 12, Eastern Athletics (Green) 6
The top-of-the-ladder Southern Mariners (A) squad picked right up in the new year where they left off at the end of 2015. After ceding four runs in the top of the first, they stormed back to score five in the bottom half, four more in the second and three in the last of the third to provide the winning margin.
Zac Dawes started for the visiting A’s; he was relieved by Tyler Evans and Koby Lyon. Austin Thorn and Kynan Jones shared the catching duties. For the victors it was Angus Newman on the bump first, followed by Luke Anson, Genieve Trendbeacon, Mitchell Johnston and usual catcher, Millar Kuhl. In Kuhl’s place, Balin O’Callaghan donned the tools of ignorance.
Eastern Athletics (Gold) 4, Southern Mariners (B) 2
This was an impressive, textbook win. The A’s (Gold) did everything right: they scored first (two each in the first two frames), had excellent starting pitching and played solid defense. The result was their most impressive victory in what has been an up-and-down season.
James Richardson started for the winning side before giving way to Austin Neave, Keeley Ronalds-Greatbatch and Patrick Gawith. Blake Mitchell and Will Stone both took turns behind the plate.
For the Mariners B squad, the hurlers consisted of James Lynch, Cooper Williamson, and Mat Kaplan. In Pudge-like fashion, Tahj Rossell caught the entire game.
Northern Diamondbacks (Orange) 12, Geelong Baycats 8
What a game! Back-and-forth the entire four innings, it featured three lead changes with the visiting D’Backs eventually hanging on for the 12-8 triumph. The winning side scored two in the first, one in the second, five in the third and another four in the fourth to secure the victory. Offensively they were ridiculously balanced, getting hits from seven—Mitch Nolan, Jimin Lee, Jaycob Pascuzzi, Darcy Broom, Adam Jirik, Addison Bishop-Wom and Lachlan Davis—of their starting nine.
Lee, Davis and Pascuzzi also pitched as Nolan caught the entire game.
Across the diamond, the Baycats also did well at the plate, recording six hits. Two came from Hudson Carter. The sole knocks were curtesy of Jordan Baumann, Hayden Peoples, Brooklyn Barker and Marton Sherry. Harper Rickard caught extremely well while Peoples, Cooper Tipping and Barker deserved better pitching fates.
Southern Mariners (A) 8, Eastern Athletics (Gold) 6
Building on their early morning win, the Mariners again fell behind early only to rally in triumphant fashion. Down 5-2 after one, they tallied five times in the bottom of the second and then traded runs in the fourth to consecrate their second victory of the day. O’Callaghan started and was relieved by David Pillinger, Dylan Williamson and St Kilda Saint Ferris Sulka. Johnston and Millar, Sulka’s club teammate, split the catching duties.
Lachie O’Connor caught the entire game for the A’s, giving signals to Bronson Neave, Blake Mitchell, Jack Romanin and Will Stone.
Southern Mariners (B) 8, Eastern Athletics (Green) 2
An excellent bounce-back effort, the B side scored once in the first, five times in the second and twice in the third to win their first game of 2016.
The Mariners were led by the superb starting pitching of Tyler Ellis and a capable relief corpsa: Tom Connolly, Josh Tribe and Lachlan Smith. Ben Campbell did yeoman duty behind the dish.
For the A’s, Finn Weichard started and threw 58 pitches. Nick Parton (22 pitches) and Ewan Jones (seven) also took the hill. Charlie O’Connell was stalwart behind the plate.
Geelong Baycats 12, Northern Diamondbacks (Green) 8
Down one in the bottom of the last (third) inning, the Baycats exploded for five runs to salvage a split against the Diamondbacks’ squads. Led by Noah Brennan’s two hits, Peoples, Sherry, Aspen McGovern and Hudson Carter all contributed big hits while Rickard and Carter were excellent on the mound. Baumann and Brennan each caught a good game.
For the D’Backs, Zac Gorman, Billy Kolyniuk, Campbell Hutton, Angus Stals and Joshua Dawson all had hits. Kolyniuk, Stals and Denzel Pelelopeti pitched, all to Gorman, who caught the entire game.
Here is how the comp stands after the fourth round: https://sportsdesq.imgstg.com/portal/index.cfm?fuseaction=competition&competitionID=10393&OrgID=16724&clubOrganisationId=0#ladder. Next week the Under 14s are back in action. Check back here for a full report of all six games.