7 October 2006 (2:00 pm): Rnd 1 vs. Syndal

Players this week: Tayla Supple, Emira Sadikay, Paige Farrell, Erin Dunstan, Cal Ziada, Amy Dillon, Alexandra Junor, Dale Stocker, Emily Bann, Melissa Lindsay.

Well, this is a funny kind of report because I am filling in for Sharon Stocker (currently on assignment in Hanoi), who is filling in for Keryn Ralph (who is not yet back from the USA). I guess retirements never last too long, and besides… I am already tired, why do I want to "re"-tire? So it was back to the tools and it was like I had never taken a break!

Regardless of all that rubbish, the season kicked off with a bang on Saturday with beautiful weather and excitement on everyone's faces as we tackled Syndal in the first A Reserve game of the year.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the auspicious debut at Falcons of Tayla Supple. Tayla is a Geelong girl who was a member of the Victorian U16 team that competed in Canberra in January's National Championships. It is also great to welcome Erin Dunstan and Mel Lindsay who I am pretty sure played their first full games for A Reserve. Well done, and welcome to the "Big Girls".

We hit first and despite some solid contact, we hit the ball straight at fielders and Syndal set us down in order. In response, Syndal scored a run in the bottom of the 1st which only served to wake our bats up and we replied with 3 of our own runs in the top of the 2nd.

Syndal added one in the bottom of the 3rd and two in the bottom of the 4th, but we had already added a couple in the 4th (a very close call at 1st didn't go our way and a muffed flyball contributed to both runs) yet were in control of the game at that stage.

So, to the numbers.

Tayla led the defence from the pitchers plate very well. Allowing for the fact it was her first effort from 43 feet, it was an impressive performance with 4 1/3 innings pitched, didn't allow a walk and struck on out. Dale relieved in the 5th innings, walking the first hitter and then striking the next two out to end the game.

Emira caught her first game of A Reserve and did a good job. There is plenty to think about at this level with a mixture of talented young players and cagey older players to deal with. With more work I am sure Emira will be very serviceable behind the dish and there is plenty of support available in Cal Ziada (who came in to catch to Dale in the 5th) and AJ both accomplished catchers who can help Emira.

The scorers adjudged that we committed two errors for the day. One was a muffed fly and while I am sure AJ would swallow 999 out of 1,000 of them, it was pretty windy and an easy one to drop. The other was a tough play up the middle that Erin made a good effort to get to and the ball just wouldn't stick in her glove.

Other than that, we were perfect and there were some good plays made on bunt defence with Erin covering 1st.

The offensive effort was led by the "rookies" with Erin Dunstan picking up 2 hits (a single and a dandy little running bunt for a hit) and she scored once for good measure.

Mel Lindsay crashed one up the middle to pick up a single (she scored twice and picked up 2 RBI's as well) and both Amy (scored once) and AJ (one RBI) collecting hits as well. Emily Bann also picked up 2 RBI's with some good team hitting to help score runs.

Overall this was a really positive start to the season. Once some good coaching can be secured (Sharon is back next week) to support this talented team I am sure they will post some even more impressive results.

Well done ladies. I now retire with a perfect 1-0 record for 2006-07.

Jesse Stocker

 2nd innings - Mel Lindsay smashed the ball up the middle to score our first runs. Tayla Supple's excellent first up performance in the middle, off 43 feet. Erin Dunstan's excellent performance with both bat and ball.