B Res: Round 4 vs Monash Magic

After a bit of a shaky start, the magnificent spirit of this team once again shone through to finish the game with a good win. Despite a few early errors, as the game wore on and our bats warmed up, our girls took control of the game and didn't look back.

Our 1st batting inning was not pretty with 3 up and 3 down. Initially the speed of the pitching (or lack there of) was a bit of a problem, but we started to get going in the 2nd dig. Kez was our lead off, and was very unlucky to be caught out by a spectacular catch in deep centre. Kate next stepped up to the plate, and this time got it over centrefield's head for a double. (Kate doesn't seem to be spending much time at 1st base these days, smacking doubles and triples in the majority of her at bats!). Some good base running from Kate enabled her to be our first run across the plate whilst the opposition were making a play on Jess at 1st.

As I said earlier, we had a shaky start, which included our fielding. Early on Liz had a tough time finding out where the zone was consistently, but battled hard throughout the game, and came away with 5 strikeouts. She was once again assisted very effectively by Megan behind the plate, whose agility and good reflexes prevented runners from gaining extra bases on a number of occasions. We managed to get our of the 1st inning with only giving up 2 runs. A smart play from Jess at short to fake making a play at 1 to then give the ball off to Ash at 3rd for the easy tag enabled us to strand 3 of their runners. Our fielding improved dramatically in the 2nd dig, significantly assisted by a great double play from Julie, who took the catch at right, and completed the play at 1st to Kez.

In the 3rd inning, our batting was again better, with Julie leading us off with a hit up the middle to centre. She was moved around by a slap from Liz, and brought home by a good shot from Reimi to leftfield. Back in the field again, Liz managed to get all three outs - 2 strike outs, and getting the ball to Kez at 1st for the final out.

It was in the 4th that our bats broke loose. Kez managed to launch a ball even further than her last shot, to this time clear centrefield for a double. Kate came up and hit one that was too hot to handle through short. Jess then flew up the 1st base line to beat out a ball she hit back to the pitcher. Lauren then did the job to put the ball into the field and score Kez. Julie kept the ball rolling (literally!) by hitting the ball too tough to pick up through short. Liz then came up and cleared the deck with a powerful triple to left. Our batting dig kept going to include a good hit to left by Jodie, which scored Liz, and Ashley again giving the shortstop a work out, beating the throw at 1st. 3 up, 3 down was the best way we could have come out and defended our runs, and in the 4th dig, that's exactly what the girls did!

We closed out the game by scoring one more run, which was Jess, who got herself on with a good hit to centre, and was then brought in on a double to leftfield from Julie. One more run was allowed in for Monash in the final dig, despite Julie's best efforts to almost come up with an awesome diving catch at rightfield.

Girls, it was great to see you get through a tough match so well. Keep up that fighting spirit!