This weeks game report will be presented from two points of view, to better share the playing and coaching experience that is Women’s baseball.
THE PLAYER
Laden with McDonald’s breakfast, redbulls and a promise that Rose will be rewarding our trip with Krispy Kremes we traveled to a far far away land named Rockingham. We spent an hour in the car to a arrive to a devastating discovery. Rose had forgotten the donuts. We were quickly revived however by the surprise of the amazing grounds the Rockingham Rams are greatly privileged to that was a welcome change to the “toy net” we had last week. With our bats held high, Rachel led the team into the first inning after her recent performance with the bat. Our hits were great but unfortunately foiled by better fielding from the second base player from the Rams. After getting a few runs in we were forced to go out into the heat and field led by Rookie on the mound. Her fabulous new pink hair was outshone by her tremendous pitching leading the team to a great 3 up 3 down inning with the help of Eva at first with a great pick up and a “made it look way to easy” catch from Emily in left field. The rest of the game seems to carry out in the same fashion. We batted and were foiled by great fielding with the exception of a few bombs by the wonderful “please come and play baseball forever” Beth who earned herself a triple and Eva who followed suit. With a change of catcher after Rose had to bow out with a headache, and a change of pitcher, Beth took the mound and the team continued their great fielding seeing a few double plays and ultimately a win to the lady whips!! Might I point out, our SECOND win for the season. Well done ladies, hopefully we can make next week our third win as our cars take a well deserved break at our home sweet home ground.
Nurse field good aka Megan.
THE COACH
Coach Maver’s usual Saturday started with the phone messages flowing thick and fast. 10 became 9, 9 became 8 and someone with a monster headache but will turn up. The emergency beacon was put on and was answered by Foreman with conditions of no sliding or diving. Coach Maver happily agreed and wondered… “do we do that anyway?” Lol
9 ladies braved the river crossing and ventured into the heart of Rocko to play a side that hadn’t won a game. (a 10th also did the river crossing to show her support),
We started by batting and got runners on base courtesy of some walks and an error. 1 run crossed the plate but 3 were stranded in enemy territory, destined not to cross. Ladies took to the field with Pinky Rooker on the mound. More akin to blend in I think with the locals. Bamboozling them with a 3 up, 3 down innings.
At the bat again with Beth crunching a ball to right field and running out a triple to put herself in a scoring position. Emily & Rachel walked to load the bases up. A couple more walks put some runs on the board with Eva not letting Beth get the better of her by repeating the crunch down right field line to also put up a triple and a couple of RBI’s. A couple of outs saw us with 4 runs for the innings and 6 in total.
Pinky managed to contain the Rockingham batters even though putting a couple of runners on base through walks. A Strikeout, A Fielders choice and 6-3 play ended the innings with them still not scoring.
Rockingham’s pitcher found her groove over the next 3 innings to sit us down in order 3 times without troubling the scoreboard.
Pinky found herself in a little trouble with 4 walks and after a calming down by the coach, fought her way back to get the next 3 batters with 2 strikeouts. A little damage done with 3 runs crossing the plate.
Next innings saw Pinky start but after giving up a hit on the first batter(valiantly chased down by Emily but missed by that much), the change was made to bring the fill in, Beth to pitch. Beth walked one and then through a ground ball to 3rd, scooped up by Eyvette to throw the runner out at First. The runner on third decided to go home on the throw and Eva’s quick thinking to throw the ball home, saw the double play enacted by Megan to tag the runner. Another routine out saw the innings ended.
The last innings saw a nervous coach on the bench with first batter getting a free ride with a hit Pitch, the second batter hit to 8. Runners moved around on an error and 1 run scored before the game was shut down with a strikeout and an unassisted play by Eva.
Final score – 6 to 4… A win on the board, the second for the season.
We managed to escape home back across the river only to have them do the return trip to our ground next