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The Waverley
Baseball Club was the winner on Saturday 15th March as
the red hot Pythons, winners of 8 of their previous 10 games took on
Minor Premiers Rustlers in the 2007-2008 U/12 Waverley Domestic
Grand Final.
Rustler Curtis
De Witt got the first hit of the game with a triple to centre field
followed by an RBI single by Sam Monkhouse to take an early 1-0
lead. Corey MacKenzie followed with a single and the Rustlers
eventually had runners on 2nd and 3rd base and
1 out. Python starting pitcher Eric Stanley then found his pitching
rhythm and put on a pitching show striking out the next 5 Rustler
batters by dominating the outer 1/3 portion of home plate and only
allowing the 1 Rustler run in his 2 innings of pitching.
To counter the
hard throwing pitcher Eric Stanley, the Rustlers started a slower
control pitcher in Josh Meyers whose sinking fastball on the out
portion of the plate countered with a harder thrown inside fastball
kept the Python batters off balance. Josh pitch 2 perfect innings of
baseball. Josh ended up with 2 strike outs and created 4 defensive
infield pop flies that were caught for outs.
Taking the game
ball in the top of the 3rd inning was Rustler Corey
MacKenzie who followed Josh Meyers in mixing his fastball speed and
locations to keep the Pythons scoreless in their top of the 3rd
inning and 4th innings allowing only one base hit to
Pythons Jack McGraw in the 3rd inning.
The Pythons
countered with Noah Ehrman taking the mound for their defensive 3rd
inning. After Rustlers Jordan Dutton struck out (6 Ks in a row for
the Python pitchers!) for the first out of the inning, Rustler
Christopher Stefancik broke the Championship game wide open with an
impromptu and unexpected 2 strike bunt base hit down the 3rd
base line that caught the Pythons (and for that matter all who were
watching!) by surprise. The fielded bunt ball was compounded with a
throwing error into right field that had Christopher racing around
to 3rd base.
Rustler Curtis
De Witt (‘Mr. March’ for his 5 RBIs in the semi and GF game
combined) slapped a ball to the right side of the infield to score
Chris from 3rd. With 2 outs and a 2 run lead, the heart
of Rustlers batting order collectively nicknamed the ‘Bash Brothers’
all season went to work. Sam Monkhouse singled to centre, Corey
MacKenzie hit an RBI triple to left field, followed by an RBI single
to Scott Cooling creating a 4-0 Rustler lead that was extended to a
5 run lead after 4 innings of play.
Rustler Sam
Monkhouse then took the mound in the 5th inning giving up
a single to Python Mark Sahhar giving hope to the Pythons for a big
rally. However on the next pitch, Mark Sahhar was thrown out trying
to steal 2nd base by Rustler catcher Christopher
Stefancik and the momentum was now truly with the Rustlers.
Sam dominated
the Pythons by striking out last 4 Python batters of the game to
earn his 2nd Career Post Season Save as the Rustlers and
Pythons raised their hands as one for a high standard competitive
Championship game that featured a combined total of 20 strikeouts
from a possible 33 outs and the Rustlers earning the Waverley Little
League Pennant for 2007-2008.
Thank you to
the parents and many people who turned up to assist with the ground
set up and support both teams on the day. A special thanks to Craig
Reval for umpiring the game and most importantly, thank you to the
players from both teams who competed with great spirit in an
entertaining game. Both teams should be very proud of their efforts
in making the grand final in a very competitive season of Little
League Baseball.
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|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
R |
H |
|
Pythons |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
|
Rustlers |
1 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
x |
5 |
12 |
WP: Rustler
Josh Meyers (1-0)
Save: Rustler Sam Monkhouse (2) |