24 hours, 38 runs.

Noting the odds were against us to make the finals the boys did what was asked of them over the weekend, trouncing inferior opposition comprehensively both Saturday and Sunday. In an unfortunate hand played by the baseball gods, the round on Saturday was abandoned due to bad weather despite our game versus Henley and Grange being completed. This effectively extinguished our chances of making the six, being 2 games out before the final 2 rounds. On Saturday we travelled to Bartley Tce and from the first dig played aggressively and without mercy surviving a mid game rain delay to post 20 runs in 6 innings. D Redden pitched well again only allowing 1 earned run in a complete game effort. Our hitting was excellent with the perfect balance of patience and aggressiveness. Returning to Lockleys and despite knowing our season would end after Sundays game, the boys did not relent, scoring 18 runs in 5 innings to mercy Norths in 2 hours. Tom Fiebig took to the hill and pitched well to record a complete game and scatter 3 hits in his last start before heading to Germany in the offseason. Good luck Tom! The bats were slightly slow to start recording only 1 run in each of the first 2 frames before the floodgates opened in the next 3 with 16 runners crossing the plate. It was pleasing to see the aggressive approach from Saturday carried over to Sunday irrespective of the team’s disappointment of not making the playoffs. As it sunk in our season was over I’m confident the players have made a mental note to strive to play finals baseball next year. This will require a commitment and resolve to improve in all areas, commencing with strength and fitness in the offseason and leading into skill work in our preseason. I’m looking forward to seeing who puts in the work to stake their claim on Division One positions. A big thank you to Chris Falls for his contributions both on and off the field this season. Chris was a great fit at the club and became part of our team unit seamlessly. He is travelling to Italy to continue his endless baseball summer. Good Luck Chris, I hope you can return to help us again next season. Another big thanks to Clive Fiebig for all his help as my assistant this year. His experience helped me immensely in my first year of coaching. We both have ideas on how to improve for next year which we will begin to implement in the offseason. Thanks to other assistant coaches who helped during the year – Wazza Bullen, Ken Kobyashi and Steve O’Connor with the pitchers. Having such experience and assistance made my job much easier. A final thank you to Di Hambly and Deirdre Burgess for scoring this season too. We will use more of your green and less of your red on our scoresheet next season. Most other teams are seeing finals action in both Juniors and Seniors in the coming weekends, so get down to cheer them on to more premierships for this great Club. Sam Tibbits