Division Three
- 16-01-10
Eagles Stifle Sturt
The first game back after the xmas break has traditionally seen the WT Div 3 lads, struggling to come to grips with their added KGs from the festive season, get belted by a lower ranked team. This season however was a different story with the Eagles managing a 7 – 4 victory against a competitive Sturt outfit. Assistant Coach Stephens still in holiday mode when he arrived to the ground with the div 5 gear bag and no lumber in sight.
After sorting out a rent to own arrangement of the Div 4 gear the Eagles failed to trouble the scorers in the top of the first. Big Noblett had starting dome duties and shut down the top part of the Saints lineup in the first. A couple of walks followed by some opposite field power by Stan The Man Laziridis plating a run and a sac up by Broady in the second to give WT a lead they would not relinquish.
Nobby worked brilliantly on the hill and was ably backed up by his field. In particular Brett Lacy covering the ground in CF to make a sweet sliding catch to end an inning and Stan, playing at 3b, making a nice pick from a bad hop off the lip and making the throw to extinguish another threat.
Patience at the plate enabled the Eagles to continually have base runners however at times opportunities were wasted with many left on base throughout the game. A total of 11 free passes received by the Eagles for the day. Highlight on the offense would have to be Ben Zoontjens legging out a triple, yes a triple, proving the 36Litres of Bavarian brew consumed by the big man at the previous weeks Shizenfest has not slowed him down one bit.
In the end a solid win after a layoff with special mention to Nobby for toughing out the complete game with 7 strong innings knowing the relief pitching stocks were very thin. A great effort particularly appreciated by Stephens, Broadbridge and Zoontjens who were all in line for a throw.
Hits: Zoontjens 2, Louzikiotis, Lacy 1
- 5/12/09
Div 3 Win, Stay Top
With several players attending Woodstock in Bonython Park the Eagles had to dig deep to field a side for the rematch of the 2008/09 Grand Final against Goodwood. In what was always going to be a tight contest the Eagles needed to execute when the opportunity arose and play tight defence.
After manufacturing a run in the top of the first thanks to a Zoontjens line drive up the middle scoring Chuck from second, Joel Chapman took to the dome for the visitors and was in control from the outset. Getting in front of opposing hitters early allowed Chappy III to use his off-speed stuff to keep the hitters off balance.
Stephens, M doubled and came in to score on a Chapman green pencil in the second to take the Eagles to an early 2-0 lead. Tight defence (D Chuck with a snakey smooth backhand play up the middle and Charlie Brown turning back the clock with a running, sliding catch in shallow RF) and quality pitching produced a couple of further donuts for the Goodwood side.
After a couple of quiet digs and some good hitting from the Indians the score was back to 2-2 after 4. Needing to manufacture a run the ‘speedy’ Broadbridge led off the 5th with a walk before swiping a base and staggering to third on an overthrow. Eventually coming home on a Harvey base hit to take a lead they would never relinquish.
Chapman III who threw an impressive 50 strikes and only 21 balls was replaced on the hill by Chuck who threw a couple of digs. The Eagles piled on 4 more insurance runs in the 7th including hits to Stephens, Broadbridge, Harvey and Brown. In the bottom of the 8th with a couple of runners on Zoontjens called on himself to close out the game and did so by cunningly giving up a single and then picking off the runner at 1B. Final score 7-3.
Great team win with 13 hits and no errors in the field.
Hits: Harvey, Stephens M 3, Broadbridge, Chuck 2, Zoontjens, Brown, Chapman 1
- 21/11/09
Eagles Excel vs Senators
On a steamy Saturday afternoon the Eagles took on Woodville in a top of the table clash at picturesque Lockleys Oval. Dylan Chuck made the 455km trip from the Mount and still arrived earlier than blokes who live at West Beach.
Big Noblett started on the hill from the home side and was outstanding from the start. Throwing first pitch strikes to the majority of hitters and keeping them off balance with good breaking stuff. The Eagles scored early for a change with 3 runs crossing the plate in the first courtesy of green pencil to Broadbridge, Harvey, Brown and Chuck combined with a couple of walks.
From there the Eagles continued to add on runs, scoring in every inning but the last to tally 8 on the day. West Torrens had contributors all the way up and down the line up with fleet of foot Stephens legging out his first triple in 7 years a highlight also Mitch Harvey executing signals that didn’t exist to bring home a run early in the game.
After throwing 4 digs for 1 earned run Noblett handed the pill to Chapman, J to close out the game. Young Chap threw two digs for no runs and a couple of strikeouts showing good composure on the dome. Final score being 8-2 moving the Eagles back to the top of the table and looking forward to a trip to the leafy eastern suburbs to play Kensington this week.
Hits: Stephens, Harvey 2, Broadbridge, Zoontjens, Brown, Chuck, Noblett 1
- 7/11/09
Eags over the Bays in 9
AfAfter a disappointing road trip the previous week to Golden Grove, and numbers stretched due to double headers in grades above over Saturday and Sunday, the Eags got themselves back in the winner’s circle After a disappointing road trip the previous week to Golden Grove, and numbers stretched due to double headers in grades above over Saturday and Sunday, the Eags got themselves back in the winner’s circle after grinding out a 4-3 win in 9, on the back of 5 solid innings in relief from youngster Joel Chapman.
With big holes in the line up left by absentee coaches Broady and Stephens T, the eags welcomed back Futon Weber and retired coach Grumpy for a cameo. With Noblett missing with a nail in the foot, coach Zoot took to the hill to get things rolling, managing to work out of some strife in the first to finish with 4 innings and only the single run to his name.
After retiring the first 9 eagle hitters without a blemish, the bay hurler then managed to walk the grumpy in lead off, and then Mitch Harvey moved him over with some green pencil, allowing Zoot to pop one up in to the Eagle doctor for 3-1 Eagle lead.
Young Chappy then took over pitching duties, and continued to quell the Tigers bats, with the help of catcher Nick Louzikiotis calling a cracking game behind the plate. Chappy even helped himself out with an RBI single following Tyson Mead’s second 2-bagger for the day.
Top 9 nine came along, and Chappy found himself in a bit of strife after a 2 run single brought it back to 4-3. But with bases loaded, none out, he showed maturity beyond his years, and managed to induce a ground ball double play through home plate, then a fly ball to right to end it. A great all round effort by the stay on for 9 innings in game that produced only 10 hits total from both teams.
A couple of notable defensive mentions, to Futon Weber, diving to snaffle a hard hit shot to 3rd base, then rolling over and throwing a bullet to first all in the one motion, and to Mitch Harvey at centerfield hosing down a runner trying to score.
Hits: Mead 2, Zoontjens 2, Chapman, Harvey
- 31/10/09
Div 3 = Deplorable
The Div 3 lads made the journey out to Golden Grove looking for their 4th straight victory of the 2009/10 campaign. In hot and humid conditions the Eagles were flat from the start and failed to capitalise on their many opportunities to take an early lead. Some sloppy work in the field gave the Dodgers an early 2-0 buffer which would prove to be enough to win the game.
It must be said that the Eagles played without luck all day and proved on many occasions the old adage ‘Baseball is a game of Inches’. We had more base runners for the day than our opponents but only managed to plate 1 run for the entire game. Failing to bunch hits together proved very costly and solid defence from the Dodgers took away a number of potential run scoring hits. The Eagles managed just 4 hits for the day along with 5 walks and gave up 5 runs of which 3 were unearned. Joel Chapman came on and pitched the last innings recording two strikeouts in an impressive showing on the mound and Nick Louzikiotis took plenty of hits behind the dish in another solid performance calling the game. Final score was a 5-1 loss.
It was disappointing to see a lack of fight and enthusiasm from the Eagles lads and the biggest spectacle of the day would have been the VS Commodore catching fire after doing a burnout on Illyarrie Drive. More focus and energy will be required against Glenelg this week.
Hits: Noblett, Louzikiotis, Brown, Mead
- 24/10/09
Eagles Edge Sturt
The Div 3 lads were slightly undermanned this week with illness and parental duties taking a toll. The silver lining being a callup for promising youngsters Mitch Harvey and Joel Chapman for their first Div 3 games of the season.
Sturt turned up ready to play and a combination of a couple of hits and some sloppy Eagles defence gave them a run in the first for an early lead. From then on the home team hurler, Brett Lacy, dominated once again including striking out the side in the second inning. The lefty mixing in a good slider along with fastball and changeup with pinpoint control of all pitches.
West Torrens tied the score in the bottom of the second with a walk and stolen base to Noblett followed by an rbi single to Broadbridge. An injury to the Sturt hurler forced an early pitching change for the visitors and the Eagles finally broke the game open with a 5 run, 2 out rally in the 4th inning to take a 6-1 lead effectively ending the contest. Nick Louzikiotis come up with a clutch single with bases loaded, 2 out and an 0-2 count. The majority of Eagles hitters worked the count well and the team collected 7 walks to go along with their 7 hits on the day.
Defensively there were a few kinks which will need to be ironed out during the week however play of the day was provided by catcher Louzikiotis who fired a bullet to 2b to easily catch the attempted steal early in the game to snuff out a rally. Overall a good team effort with the boys grinding out an eventual 8-2 victory before enjoying a deserved brew post game. This week its time to pack up the wagons and head north to GGCD
Hits: Noblett, Broadbridge 2, Louzikiotis, Zoontjens, Stephens 1
- 17/10/09
Div 3 scuttle Souths
Starting pitcher Brett Lacy backed up his previous weeks effort with another stellar 6 innings of work down at picturesque Peregrine Park to lead the Eagles to a 12-3 victory over the Hawks.
With the Christies Beach Doctor blowing directly in from CF, scoring was always going to be tough. Any fly ball held up in the breeze to be an easy catch for the outfield and it took the Eagles a couple of digs to adjust to conditions. After leaving the bases loaded in the first the bats finally came alive in the top of the third with 3 runs crossing the plate giving the Eagles a 3-1 lead.
Lacy remained dominant on the mound backed up by some solid defence by almost everyone.. Nobby Noblet putting in an early claim for catch of the year with an outstanding full stretch diving grab on a ball hit in the right centre alley to snuff out a South’s rally.
WT rallied for a further 5 runs in the 5th inning with Brown, Mead, Noblet and Hefford all chiming in with timely hits which effectively ended the contest. A further 4 runs crossed the plate in the top of the last to add an exclamation mark to the victory. Broadbridge came on and eventually finished off the game after taking a while to locate the strike zone.
A really even team effort with all 9 players in the lineup collecting at least one hit. Hefford with 3 rbi and Tyson Mead with 3 hits were a couple of the standouts in the batters box. This week Sturt at home and hopefully some warmer weather.
Hits: Mead 3, Stephens, T, Hefford, Lacy 2, Noblet, Louzikiotis, Broadbridge, Zoontjens, Brown 1.
