Div 4 Red Match Reports 09/10

Round 18 (Feb 21 10) St Kilda 13 Doncaster 9 Feb

Saints start an interesting day looking like they may have only 8 due to some seriously late withdrawals. However Doncaster have the same problem and actually have to play with only 8. Neil Bennett saves the day and completes our nine. Doncaster plate 2 in the first just by putting the ball in play against our starter Corey. Saints answer back with 3 of our own but this time it’s the Doncaster poor fielding and pitching that lets us in. Saints up 3-2 Corey shuts them down in order in the 2nd with some strong infield support. The StKilda bats wake up to plate 4 in 2nd with Corey Lordy and Al getting consecutive extra base hits. Saints up 7-4 The third inning sees the Saints fielding drop off with 3 errors in the middle of the inning leading to 3 unearned runs for them. A bizarre play then occurs with their number 8 hitter hitting a great flat shot to centre-right but he knows the blank is up with them on 2 outs. He just keeps running and our relay man turns to see if he will try and make home from third and can’t get the relay home in time for the worst in-the-park home run he will ever get. Of course Saints proceed to go down in order in the bottom half to emphasize the point and somehow it 7-7 Saints are still making some errors in the 4th but get out of it giving up only 1 run. The bats wake up a bit with Nathan and Corey hitting safely and we plate 3 for the inning. Saints up 10-7. Our final fielding dig is as strange as the rest of the day as it goes, error, Strikeout, error, forceout, strikeout. And one run scores. The bats finish with Neil leading off strongly  with a line drive up the middle and we plate 3 to finish 13-9 up.
Not our best day but still a satisfying win
Round 17 (Feb 14 10) StKilda 3 Blackburn B 8

Reds travelled out to Blackburn with a full squad of 11. Ripken's Blackburn B have been at or near the top of the ladder all year and are a very disciplined squad. The reds had to win the last three and hope someone in the top 4 fell over to get in the finals so this was a crunch game. Reds get off to a flyer plating 3 in the first highlighted by a solid lead off line drive by Yugo. But then a heartbreaking inning of dropped catches, missed plays and bloop hits see them score 6 runs.

Saints down 3-6. Second inning sees the Reds go down without scoring. Their first two hitters smash triples over right field to plate two more before StKilda start to lock them down. Saints down 3-8. And that’s it....

Neither side scores again in 3 tight innings of really solid ball to finish the game after five with the score 3-8. We welcomed a new player Tom to StKilda and he made a sweet throw to 2nd on a bloop hit down the left field line to catch the runner with the tag from Sean finishing a nice play. So other than the first inning Saints really did enough in the field to knock over this team but our bats were silent after the first too. Lots of good signs but at the end of the day it was that inning that sealed our fate. Lordy went well on the mound and Corey came on to close the fifth without giving up a run.

Round 15 (Jan 31 10) Melton forfeits

St Kilda travelled all the way out to Melton and I am pleased to say had 7 of the 9 there by 12pm. We were most the way through our warm up in a howling gale and 37 degree heat when the 6 Melton players walk over and inform us of a forfeit. sigh. The confidence and percentage boost we were hoping for out there was not to be. Now its on to our season defining game next week against Chelsea who appear to have been beaten up nicely by Blacks last week. Thanks boys!

Round 14 (Jan 24 10) St Kilda Red 10 St Kilda Black 9

Time for the derby again, and boy what a game. A great breakfast served up from 9am starts an interesting day. Thanks Corey's Mum! Both sides missing some key players but all keen to get into it.Ben M starts on the mound for Blacks and has a rough start giving up 4 hits to the first 5 batters. An infield hit, a rundown play gone wrong and a Jack to Lordy plate 3 for the reds. Blacks come back hard against Corey though with 3 hits and 2 walks plating 5 to take a 5-3 lead after one. A sweet lead off hit to Nathan in the 2nd is followed by 2 strike outs as Ben finds the zone. Gabor scores Nathan though and is moved over by a Lordy Hit-and-run. An infield error costs blacks two more and then Ben strikes out the 3rd out of the inning as reds score 4. Corey has a good inning as Blacks don’t add to the score and its 7-5 to the reds. Reds go down almost in order in the 3rd and Blacks plate four in the inning largely on a line drive double down 3rd base line from Ben Tan. Blacks up 9-7.Reds score two in the 4th on a hit from Crackers up the middle to score Lordy who walked and a hit to right from Matt White to score Crackers. Lordy comes in the bottom half to shut out the Blacks. After 3 walks could have had bases loaded but a caught stealing at home plate on Binge and a dubious pick off on the 1st and 3rd play catches Stephen C for two outs. A Strikeout ends the threat with the game tied at 9.Last dig sees Ben pitching well but the outs just couldn't quite happen and an infield hit to Corey scores Gabor from 3rd.Bottom half of the last inning sees 3 infield ground balls close out the game for a 10-9 win to the Reds. Great game played in great spirit and amazingly in front of 2 VBA umpires! Thanks to all the guys who came down and watched.

Round 13 (Jan 17 10) St Kilda 2 Carrum Downs 19
Reds lined up against the in form Carrum Downs side. Complete with their former Div 2 starting pitcher and ex state captain of the softball team in the lineup...blah blah blah. When we saw the pitcher was not Mason Gosstray we looked forward to a good game. It certainly started that way with Lordy only giving up one unearned run in the first 2 digs and Saints plating two. The third inning saw things fall over. With no one out a high fly double and a walk brings up their best hitter. He struggles with 4 foul balls on an 0-2 count only for Lordy to deliver a terrible changeup that was placed where it belonged: over the home run fence. More doubles walks and errors make for 9 runs in the inning. Lordy comes good to strike out 3 of the last 4 batters to end the inning. Corey pitched the next dig and shuts them out but we canot get anything going with the bat and at the end of four its 9-2. Our new Japanese import Daniel arrives and Lordy sees him warm up pitching and looking good. He is given the chance to pitch and jumps at it. Unfortunately the Carrum Downs hitters like him too and ten more runs in the next two innings puts the game far out of reach. StKilda warm up a bit with the bat to have 1st and 3rd with no one out in the 5th but a base running error on a ground ball to third ends in a double play and the threat dies soon after. We welcomed the "Big Dawg", Cody Everett into the lineup for his first game at StKilda for many years. While he had three strong at bats for a double and two deep flies, he may want to see more than 3 pitches next game, haha

Round 12 (Dec 20 09) St Kilda 23 Blackburn A 6
The old cliche finally happened for the reds this week: "A great team effort". One error for the whole game in the field. Corey pitched a complete game for the win. Only 6 hits for the 4 innings work is a sign of things to come for him, and all this after being heart punched by a crushed line drive up the middle from their second hitter of the day. Nice to see him get back up there and on with the job. Our hitting was the difference today. We were not up their for free passes as their starting pitcher throwing to 35 batters with only 2 walks shows. 8 of our starting 9 got hits and everyone got on base. The hitting line shows some people had a really good day with Nathan McLeod leading the way with 4 from 4! Yugo was very good behind the plate and Lordy and Buzz dove around the infield like mad men. Highlight of the day came from Josh Kinal's slide into third on a walk from Matt when there was already a runner on one as well. Apparently 3rd base coach called "down" so he duelly obeyed and the slide had to have gone at least 7 or 8 cm....
Well done team.

Hits: Corey 4, Nathan 4, Yugo 3 (2B), Gabor 3, Alistair 2 (2B), Lordy 2 (2B), Matt W 2, Matt B.

Round 10 (Dec 06 09)
St Kilda 12, Berwick 10

Corey starts on the mound for our Saturday game and at least we have 9 players this week.We lead off the game pretty mildly scoring one run from Yugo's lead off walk. Berwick come back with 3 runs but three strong infield outs from ground balls is a good sign. Saints down 1-3.
Second inning Chris Molnar gets on with a rip up the middle and scores after a long Yugo at bat ends in an infield error. Yugo scores on a huge line drive smash from Buzz that gets to the fence in deep right. Lordy at third base coach waves him around third telling him to go if he wants to. Their short stop is still picking up the relay but her(?!) throw is perfect to home and despite a great slide under the tag the umpire calls him out. As we get the oxygen out for Buzz, Lordy thinks about protesting the call...
Saints send the Berwick team down without scoring in the bottom half of the inning despite two hits for them. Score tied at 3.
Corey gets on from an error to lead off the third and Lordy brings him home on a double to left. Gabor then scores Lordy on an infield hit after his mad wheels has stolen third. We load them up with a line drive single from Josh up the middle and a walk from Nathan. Unfortunately an infield fly rule confuses our base runners and the double play ends the inning. Berwick then score 4 runs on one hit. The inning ends when Berwick have runners on 1 and 2 with 2 out. Their batter fouls a couple off and both times the runners are stealing. Buzz calls time and a long conference in the middle with Corey seems a bit obvious a pitch out is coming. Sure enough it is but the perfect execution of the play has Buzz up and firing to third and despite one of their fastest runners getting the jump from hell, he is out by a yard on the Lordy tag. Inning over Saints down 5-7.
Saints now turn it up a notch in the fourth plating 7 runs. Buzz doubles twice in the inning and Gabor smashes one through the cones in deep left. Singles to Corey and Chris make for 5 earned runs out of the 7.
Berwick dont go down weekly though and 3 hits and 3 walks get it to bases loaded with 2 out when Lordy replaces Corey on the mound. A strikeout on a slider in the dirt gets us over the line for a very gratifying win 12-10. A really good team win. 10 hits, 5 for extra bases, Grats to Corey on his first W as a pitcher and the fielding backed him up well.

Hits: Alistair 3 (2x2B, 3B), Gabor 2(2B), Chris 2, Lordy (2B), Corey, Josh.
Pitching: Corey (4IP, 7H, K, 8BB)

Round 9 (Nov 29 09)

St Kilda 14, Doncaster 7

A couple of late withdrawals meant Lordy was ringing around Sunday morning looking for help. Alas none could be found and we fronted up to a rainy GMBC ground with 8. Just as we are finishing warm up the drizzle gets harder and we run off to stand around for 15 minutes under cover. Both sides are keen to play though and we get started as soon as the rain eases. First innings starts with us plating 3 on a walk, 2 hits and an error. Unfortunately Lordy has a strange start on the mound and gives up 5 runs to 8 batters who only got one hit but had 3 walks. Doncaster 5-3.  Each side plates a run in the second. Doncaster 6-4. The third sees things turn St.Kilda's way big time. We pile the pressure on with 8 runs from 10 hitters with Blank being one of the outs. 3 walks 3 hits and 3 errors make for a great dig. In the always crucial response to a big dig, they come up and only score 1 run from a lead off error and 1 hit. 12-7 St.Kilda. The 4th sees a Saints run after Yugo gets on from an error and scores on Alistair's drive up the middle. Doncaster go down in order 13-7 St.Kilda. We see out the game with Lordy doubling to lead off and scoring on Binge's ground out and then shutting them down without scoring to take it 14-7.
Good all round team effort with 6 of our starters getting a hit and everyone getting on base at some point.
Hits: Yugo, Alistair, Corey, Lordy(4), Gabor and Binge.
Lordy

Round 6 (Nov 8 09)

St Kilda 0, Chelsea 13

Very flattering scoreline for Chelsea. We give up 8 walks, 13(!) stolen bases and 2 errors in the first 2 innings to hand them 12 runs for little in the hitting department. Our bats picked up some solid hits but we need to tighten down the defence if we are going to compete. One highlight for us though was Crackers hustling back on a line drive out to not be doubled up at first. He overshoots the bag and is nearly out diving back from the foul side of first base... interesting. Second bright spot was Corey coming on for the last inning to pitch and shutting them down in order. Nice work. Next week will be better...

Round 5 (Nov 1 09)

St.Kilda Black 24 defeated St.Kilda Red 10

Last Sunday the Division 4 Derby made its return, but this time both teams were playing for premiership points, as opposed to bragging rights and Luke Richard’s notorious “B-Tard Cup”. In the absence of manager, Neil Bennett, Craig O’Hare has done a stellar job in being the Div 4 Black interim manager. An excellent pep talk from Craig before the game had everyone focused for the game. And it was very pleasing that everyone responded to Craig’s words of wisdom and contributed well both with the bat and with their gloves in the field. Scott Meltzer pitched his best game thus far. He was consistent in finding the zone and showed some command when towing the rubber. Scott was also given the honour of pitching to club legend, Tom O’Halloran, who pinch hit late in the game for his annual 10 year AB. It was terrific to see good ol’ Tommy connect with Scott’s first pitch and put one into play. Al Meyer was the relief pitcher for Scott for his second pitching appearance. This time Al seemed more composed on the hill than last week and didn’t commit any balks. Not having “the balk calling machine” and Jonny Sagorin’s level headed umpiring seemed to help his situation a lot more. Also, Stephen Carter is starting to play a pivotal role for the team as a catcher. He was very solid for both Scott and Al’s pitching. And Stephen’s hitting is proving to be a strong part of his game as well. One of the highlights of the game was his great hustling three-bagger. Who said catchers can’t run! After only having 8 players on the field last week at Melton, we were blessed with having 10 fully fit men. The return of Dean Tenniswood and a couple of new inclusions to the team, Duncan van der Mijl and Josh Kerr, really helped strengthen the team. Ben Tan is also proving to be an excellent lead off hitter and is continuing to show promise at short stop. But a sound performance and a much needed win has helped put St.Kilda Black’s season back on track.

Round 4 (Oct 25 09)
St Kilda 4, Carrum Downs 15

Playing what I assume is Carrum's firsts as it is a new club StKilda kept them close for a few innings before they pulled away in the last two. This was the best pitching most of our guys will see for awhile with a perfect wind for a right hander throwing sliders.

Game started with our guys going down in order and then Lordy hitting their 2nd batter and walking the third. Both runners proceed to steal to third and score on a wild pitch and a 4-3 ground out. 2-0 was a flattering scoreline to them. In the next 3 innings they score 3 runs on 2 hits and lots of steals. They are not really ahead of us when it comes to hitting as in the same time we put up 4 hits and knock in 2. After 4 innings it is 2-4 and Lordy is changed out for Cliff Lloyd to take the mound.
We start the 5th with 3 hits in the first four batters to bring it to 4-5 with Lordy on 2 and 1 out. Unfortunately that was pretty much it for the day as our next 5 hitters go down in order and they get some luck when batting. A swirly wind does not help Cliff as he gets alot of batters to pop up short in the outfield but they get away from us and they plate 10 runs in the last two.Yugo was welcomed back to catching with a curve ball that bounces off the plate and into his neck in the first inning. We were all worried but he came up after a few coughs and caught a solid game. Cliff picked up two hits and did well pitching. Matt White and Nathan had good days in the field and we welcomed Matt Bellmain to our side.