Mid-Week Rap, November 21st 2014.
Round 10 of the Division 1 Victorian Summer Baseball League saw mid-week games on Tuesday and Wednesday. This was the return leg of the cross-conference matches that began on the previous weekend.
Waverley got the win in a tight contest 1-2 at home to Sandringham in the first of the Tuesday games. This was after the Wildcats alleviated their scoring woes when they scored seven runs on Sunday to defeat the Royals 1. The young Waverley team had won two in a row before the match and with the win they now sit on 4 and 6 and are in touch with the top two who are on six wins. For a full match report go to the Summer League website.
Williamstown who were the away team to Blackburn at MBP snapped their losing streak when they beat the Orioles 4-1, and that was after losing by ten runs at home on Sunday. This win shows how results in Division 1 don’t say everything about a team. In the Sunday win Blackburn were lead by the dominant pitching of Adam Bright and some patience and power in their middle order from Evans, Bookluck and Phillips.
Essendon took the points 6-1 as the away team to Upwey Ferntree Gully after the Dons won in a mercy ruling on Sunday at Boeing Reserve. In the Sunday game Essendon delivered the win on the back of a superb pitching performance from Luke Abels and Ross Hipke as well as four hits from veteran Tim Sullivan. Upwey will take something from the pitching performance of Luke Howell who held Essendon for six innings.
Newport lead by Eric Kline on the hill ran out winners 3-0 as the away team to Doncaster at MBP on Wednesday. That was after the Rams went down to a red-hot Dragons team, lead in defence by Luke Westphal 8-2 on Sunday. Doncaster’s match report can be read here.
Wednesday night saw the final Division 1 midweek game as Geelong came back from a 2-4 loss on Sunday to beat Melbourne 4-0.
Division 2 saw three midweek games all being played on Wednesday at 6pm. Sunshine travelled to Port Melbourne for an 11-6 win; Berwick went down to Springvale and Malvern got the win over St.Kilda.
On the weekend Sunshine came off a big win over Malvern 11-3 and Port Melbourne will be buoyed after their 3rd win of the year against Springvale.
Berwick will be now be looking to steady after the loss to Springvale and a walk off loss to Fitzroy. They go below 500 but their opponents and great rivals will be glad to have steadied after staring down three losses in a row.
St.Kilda took another close loss but were looking for their third win after getting over Bonbeach St.Chads 4-7 on Sunday and losing the two previous games by one run each.
Their opponents Malvern look to have moved on quickly after their 11-3 loss to top placed Sunshine on the weekend. The Braves middle order came out on Wednesday and collated 10 hits in the win after Ashton (batting three) McKenzie (batting four) and Campitelli (in the lead off spot) all got two hits each. Malvern starter Jordan Liester pitched a complete seven innings game for one run and eleven Ks. Those strikeouts must have come under pressure as he got away with throwing seven walks and 3 HBP.
There are no mid-week games in women’s Division 1 this week. This Saturday 22nd November all games are at 3.30pm. Doncaster is at Essendon, Werribee go to Footscray and Malvern are at Springvale.
Report by Cam Gleeson