December 5, 2010
Springvale had been travelling comfortably in the 2010/11 season, but had been defeated the week before when Preston had scored heavily in the opening two innings off some wild pitching from Glen Richards. Scott Baillie had had to come in with bases loaded and none down in the second, his relief job effective but not enough for a win.
Springvale travelled out to Williamstown, having beaten the Wolves once already in the season. A strong wind was blowing in, helping the pitchers whip in the ball, while swirling fielded balls unpredictably. Looking tame at the opening of the first, with Baillie grounding out and Rob Novotny watching a third strike over, the bats came to life with stalwarts Lucas Price, Myles Barnden and Rob Hogan hitting strongly to score two first inning runs.
Baillie opened strongly with two strike-outs of his own, and it was only an error by Hogan at 1st base on a throw over from Barnden at shortstop that allowed Williamstown’s Daniel Chircop to become a runner and extend the inning, giving Jordan Camov the opportunity to hit a double, scoring an unearned run to go against Springvale’s two.
Springvale did not score again until the third. Rob Novotny fleet-footed his way safe on an infield hit to 2nd , and was safe on a wild throw when Price hit the ball back to the pitcher. The pitcher threw wildly again, choosing to play at home while Myles Barnden scampered to 2nd, only for Novotny to be
safe on the error. The ball was rocketing around, with 3rd base Evan Edwards also throwing wildly on the same play to advance Barnden, and a wild pitch completed the ignominy.
Again, two runs from Springvale were matched with an unearned run from Williamstown. Aaron Green, like Novotny, led off with an infield hit, and was safe at 2nd, and rounded 3rd when Lucas Price’s throw from a groundball went wild. This meant Green could score on a groundball, and he duly did. The final out was another strike-out to Scott Baillie, the tally mounting to six from three innings.
And then in the fourth, there were another three strike-outs to add. And again in the fifth, making twelve Ks in five innings.
There were plenty of Ks on the Springvale page of the score-book, too. The Springvale hitters had no hits over the middle innings of the game, and could not take advantage of the errors that continued to mar Williamstown’s fielding. In the fifth, Novotny was safe on an error, and this was followed by a
missed infield pop-up. But with two safe on errors from two batters, Novotny was picked off, and then two outfield flies remedied the sloppy infield work.
Williamstown scored in the seventh, Chris Jackson hitting a double to centre, and advancing to 3rd on Ryan Camov’s single. This meant Green could sacrifice himself for a score. But since Baillie bookended the innings with another two strike-outs – his fourteenth and fifteenth for the game – the damage was limited.
Sloppy infielding again gifted Springvale runs in the eighth. Rob Hogan led off and was safe on a wild throw from 3rd , Neal Cavanagh singled – the only hit for the innings, and Springvale’s only hit after the third inning, and then Glen Richards hit to 1 st base. Choosing to go for the lead runner, the throw was made to 3rd, but Josh Robinson made his second error for the inning, and there were none down. Robinson recovered himself on the next play, though, fielding and throwing home where Hogan was tagged out. Ben Bartlett had come in to replace Shae Lillywhite, but was struck out in his first at bat. Baillie, pitching heroically, looked like being the 3rd out when he hit in the air to shortstop, but the ball was dropped, and two runs came home, so that three errors in the inning had generated two runs. If Springvale had hit more solidly, the price would have been more hefty. Baillie had become used to sending batters back to the bench without the field coming in to play, so he may have been surprised when the ball was hit back to him by the lead-off in the bottom of the eighth. But a safe hit to the pitcher did not ruffle him, and he still completed another two strike-outs for the inning, allowing the field to get involved with a popped-up foul fly to Hogan. The two Ks were the sixteenth and seventeenth for the day.
And the eighteenth strike-out was the final out for the game, Springvale winning 6-3 on the back of Baillie’s most memorable performance for the Lions, with Williamstown contributing nine errors to their own defeat.
Rob Hogan led the hitting for the day with two, while Rob Novotny, Lucas Price and Neal Cavanagh
were also on the hitters’ list.
STARTING LINE-UP
Scott Baillie – Pitcher
Rob Novotny – Catcher
Lucas Price – 3rd Base
Myles Barnden – Shortstop
Robert Hogan – 1st Base
Neal Cavanagh – Left-field
Glen Richards – Centre-field
Tim Hanson – Right-field
Shae Lillywhite – 2nd Base
STRIKE-OUT COUNT
Aaron Green – 2
Jay Willis – 3
Daniel Chircop – 1
Jordan Camov – 1
Evan Edwards – 2
Josh Robinson – 4
Jacob Stirrat – 2
Chris Jackson – 1
Jason Lester – 2