Weekly Wrap Up - Issue 1

Round 1: Washed Out
Round 2: Syndal lost to Ejays due to a Forfeit
Round 3:  Syndal defeated Glen Waverley 4 - 0
Syndal (4) v GWSC (0)

Round 3 and our first game. A washout, a forfeit and a win! It was good to see the return of three previous Open 1 players: Mel Grand-Court, Nat Passarelli and Rose Chalmers.

Our first turn at-bat was not the start we wanted with one walk and three strikes-outs. GW managed a through-the-cones triple but couldn’t get it home. The second innings started with a lovely hit to right field from Sarah W followed by two walks which included a number of wild pitches that Sarah capitalised on to score our first run. Not much happened on both sides for the next five half innings except for a number of strikeouts predominantly to the Sarahs’ battery.

Top of sixth saw Sarah B find a sweet spot on the first pitch to send the ball very close to cones, but not quite enough to send over on the full. Mel came up and hit a second shot to left field, the first had been safe in the third, but this was caught, but far enough out to allow Sarah run home and give Mel a Sacrifice Fly stat. Sarah W hit her second safe hit to right field again and was then allowed a courtesy runner and Mel returned to second base. Kate also found her bat and caused some confusion with a hit into what appeared to be a space behind second base. No one caught it and they also missed taking out Mel running to third. She made it and Kate also took advantage in running to second. Rose had her second walk of the game and then Nat had her turn. A wild pitch saw Mel grab home and Kate took advantage of some mess at home plate to also score a run.

GW replaced their pitcher in the top of sixth so further runs were prevented and the game finished 4-0 in Syndal’s favour.

Game stats - hits 7-2 (2 Sarah W, 1 triple Sarah B, 1 Steph, 1 Kate, 1 Nat, 1 Mel), K2/Cs 14-9, BBs 0-4, errors 0-2.

Let’s hope this is now how we keep going to retain our crown.

Syndal (8) v GEMSA (0) 22/10/24

Our first night game of the season. It started very well with Steph hitting a home run on the second pitch. The rest of the inning wasn't so great with pitches hit straight to fielders. GEMSA fared less well with three strikeouts and their only hit of the game.

Our second inning was more fruitful with four hits, including doubles to Rose and Miki. Sarah W and Tegan each scored a single. A muffed fly from Nat helped add to our score and we were leading 5-0 as we headed into the bottom of the second inning. GEMSA managed two more strikeouts and a fly ball to first before Syndal batted again. Again, our third inning was coloured green. Three hits and a superbly placed bunt by Miki saw three more runs come home. Mel G hit a double and Mel R and Rose scored a single each.

GEMSA's third inning was another battery demonstration with three K2s. Heading into the fourth inning, GEMSA swapped their pitcher which was enough to throw Syndal off balance and neither side scored another hit nor run. This meant that Syndal had to wait until the bottom of the fifth to win by the run-ahead rule.

Round 4 - Syndal (9) defeated Brandon Heights (0)

2024 has not started well in terms of player availability on the diamond, and Gill does an awesome job finding players so we do not have to forfeit more games.

Pink Day was no different and Open 1 was due to start with two of Glen Waverley's juniors to give us a total of 9 players. In the end we gave one of our GW players to BH so we could play.

With only eight players, Karl was struggling to fill third base. Audrey agreed to give it a go, although she may not have realised how fast a batted ball would come to her. She discovered this twice in the top of the first, but fortunately a couple of perfectly timed strikeouts prevented GW from scoring having reached third.

Our first inning was our longest at bat. Six hits with singles to Steph (x2), Miki, Elise (GW junior) and Courtnie and Audrey found the perfect position along the right field line. With only two outfielders Audrey galloped round all four bases before the ball made it home, scoring 4 RBIs.

BH started their second inning with a single to left field, but then three outs stopped them achieving a run. Our second inning was less productive, with only one hit to Andy. BH's third inning was a little more colourful with three hits and an error. Audrey managed to hang onto the ball from Sarah B to catch BH trying to steal third and they also found our big open space in right field to get their batter-runner to second. Fortunately, they couldn't bring them home.

Our third inning saw another home run with Sarah B hitting over the fence two bring home two runners. Sarah W also hit a double and then earnt a runner, but we couldn't score her. Another three outs for BH and Syndal were heading into the fourth needing two runs to finish the game. We only scored one! A single from Andy got her on base. A steal and an error moved her round to their base before BH attempted to catch Miki stealing second (do they not realise how fast she is!) and possibly forgetting that we had Andy at third who stole home without anyone chasing her.

Three outs were required in the top of the fifth. A walk saw their lead-off reach first safely, but then a great double play from Sarah W to Elise (our GW junior) to Andy gave us two outs and the game.

The Glen Waverley juniors (Elise for Syndal and Lexie for GW) both had a great game and we will gladly welcome them back on ICPs if we need them.

Round 1 - Washed Out

Round 2 - Syndal (3) lost to Glen Waverley (5)

A rocky start to our first game of the season allowing GW to score 3 runs in the first innings but we were able to hold them to just 2 more runs for the rest of the game to go down 5-3. Our battery, Jen and Megan, did a great job with a trying strike zone. Jen was able to take some of the frustration into the batters box and hit a triple, unfortunately we couldn't get her home.