Final tune up before finals

Concordes United 7 d Warriors 6

Warriors were pleased to have their speedster back at the top of the line up in Justine Koop but it was indeed Jarvo Queale that found her way to a unguarded home plate when Mel Chuck forced an error in United’s field at the top of the first.

Dana Jones was pitching for United and continued her tremendous consistency, found when playing in Adelaide for the State Championships, quelling Warriors’ bats.

She then got on base with two out, both her and Sarah Thomson using the sun to advantage, making it hard for Warriors fielders on the right side of the time, scoring an equaliser.

Kelly Doyle led off with a single but was gunned down caught stealing at second by Codie Jackway to her elder sister Allana Feast.

Feast then made an outstanding double play at shortstop, putting out the lead runner Linda Dodds at second then throwing over to Bec White at first to have Haley Lindner out by a whisker.

White then led off with a well driven single to centre right, showing her old side she had overcome any jitters facing Leyna Bruggemann.

Bruggemann then shifted into gear with three strikeouts in a row.

Koop was scored again by Chuck singling to Thomson up the middle, Warriors up 2-1 before United intensified their offensive pressure.

Jackway showed that hitting to the right side is now a legitimate part of her repertoire with a double.

Rosie Clarke and Jones forced errors before Thomson got hoodwinked by Bruggemann, Leonie McCallum sac-flied to Dodds and the score now 4-2 United.

White creamed another Bruggemann pie for a double this time, Julie Beck patiently picked a walk and Feast was put out to Jasmine Disselbach at first to shut the United rally down.

Doyle got on after a nine pitch at bat, Lindner singled to left, Disselbach walked then Koop stepped up and handled a two RBI double.

Caroline Bradshaw entered the game and she singled to Beck which scored Koop.

Bruggemann was pleased with an eight pitch fourth innings.

Feast was wreaking havoc again in the field, the ball magnet making two of the three outs teaming up with Kennett to get Kateesha Yates out as the lead runner after she singled up the middle past Jones.

Feast also had Skylea McLean out by a nose, McCallum making the last out to put her side in to bat 6-4 down.

Showing faith in their ability as the premiers of the past two seasons, Jones put down a bunt that Bruggemann gunned straight over first base but also straight down the right field line resulting in a run.

That got the United bellies firing, back to back to back singles to Thomson, McCallum and White before Beck stepped up and drilled a favoured inside pitch for a walk off double and her side’s victory 7-6, a great vibe amongst both teams heading into the finals next week.

Demons 9 drew with Concordes White 9

At the top of the first Sofie Morale flied out to Maddie Bowd at leftfield.

Em Hart was unconventionally dropped on a third strike by catcher Sam Brown who recovered to throw her out at one.

Cody Manning had a safehit to right field and was scored by Kezia Feast with a safehit to leftfield.

Meg Merrett’s double to centrefield scored Feast.

Simone Little continued the batting spree scoring Merrett before Alli Kreplins came back with a strike out to Kaesea Jackson to end the innings with Demons scoring three runs.

Lead off for Concordes White Karly Pearson flied out to third base in a one pitch one out play, followed by two base on balls to Brown and Kreplins.

Manning came back strongly on the mound to strike out Aleesha Tucker and Kate Altschwager end the innings holding Concordes to nil for the innings.

To start the second innings Demons continued their strong batting with Steph Chant having a safe hit to leftfield which then brought top of the line up Morale who had a top shot to leftfield.

Hart flied out to shortstop and Manning had a hard drive to centrefield adding to her RBI tally scoring both Chant and Morale.

A long throw from White’s Tucker at third had Feast caught short at first for the second out and a hard line drive back to the pitcher Kreplins who played first ended the innings for Demons, with Demons being held to two runs for the innings and holding a five run lead.

However, Concordes were not going to give up easily and the bottom of the second was their time to shine.

Kylie Cook slammed a two-base hit through centrefield and stole on a pass ball.

Bowd’s safe hit to the spot of the day leftfield had her safely on first.

Chloe O’Connor picked a walk to load the bases and Lynley Pollard’s walk scored Cook for Concordes first run.

Pearson hit safely to centrefield gathering two RBI’s scoring O’Connor and Pollard.

Brown flied out to shortstop for the first out.

Kreplins picked a walk to load up the bases and Tucker’s solid shot to centrefield scored Pearson.

Altschwager advanced to one after being hit by a pitched ball which brought Cook back to the batter’s box who again had a safe hit to leftfield scoring Kreplins and Tucker.

Bowd flied out to pitcher Manning, O’Connor picked her second walk for the game and Pollard’s safe hit to you guessed it leftfield scored Altschwager and Cook.

Pearson was struck out for the third out but not before Concordes had scored an exceptional eight runs for the innings.

Chasing a three run deficit Little had a crisp shot to centrefield. Billie Jones then forced an error from third base.

Jackson flied out to Kreplins for the first out as did Chant. Morale then hit to centrefield scoring Little.

With Em Hart up to bat catcher Brown made a ripping throw to three to pick off the runner and third base Cook finished off the play with a brilliant tag to see Jones caught short ending the innings for Demons with only one additional run added to the Demons tally.

Concordes needed to add to their runs tally, but unfortunately Brown flied out to second for the first out while Kreplins picked a walk and Tucker was struck out.

Kreplins used her speed and initiative ans stole bases ending up at three and Amber Smith hit safely to second to score Kreplins.

Cook picked a walk and Bowd flied out to third putting Concordes up 9 – 6.

In the final innings of the game Hart forced an error to make first base and Manning’s huge home run scored two.

Pitcher Kreplins came back on the mound to ensure an out was made with Pearson making the play at one for the first out. Merrett’s soild shot to centrefield had her safely at one.

With the tying run on first base Little flied out to a brilliant catch by Mel Smaling at centrefield.

Jones was intentially walked bringing Jackson to the plate who forced an error at second base scoring the tying run in Merrett.

Chant then hit to second where Pearson and O’Connor made sure of the out to end the innings for Demons.

Concordes had the opportunity to win the game and O’Connor led the way with a hard hit to leftfield.

Smaling flied out to pitcher Manning for the first out and Pearson flied out to leftfield.

Brown then singled to centrefield to advance O’Connor but Kreplins hit the ball back to the pitcher for an easy out to end the game with the final score nine all.

It was a fantastic effort for the fifth team of the competition to hold the top team in the competition.

Wanderers 16 d Bandits 1

In the final minor round game of the year, Wanderers played Millicent with an eye towards finals this coming week.

With a couple of early hits in the first innings to Millowick and Redman, Bandits were unable to convert their early base runners in to any runs.

Two hits for Wanderers from Finch and Smith followed up with a couple of errors allowed them to capitalise and put three on the board and take an early lead in the first.

Bandits scored one in the second thanks to a double from Feast, if it wasn’t for some amazing defensive work, it may have been a few more with the ever powerful Redman’s smashed hit straight back at Smith on the mound somehow being caught before she could even get out of the box.

Wanderers stepped it up in the second putting five on the board with more safe hits from Finch and Smith and a hard hit line drive from Moody setting them up with an 8-1 lead at the end of the second dig.

A super quick five pitch inning lead to three up three down for the Bandits even with a safehit to Lock in the mix, how ever unluckily with yet another line drive back at Smith on the mound setting up a double play and a very short top of the third for Bandits.

Much of the same for Wanderers with Redman throwing a couple of strike outs to make it a quiet scoreless inning for both teams keeping the score at 8-1.

The top of the fourth saw a safe hit from Whitehead but it wasn’t enough for the Bandits to work with or to trouble the scorers. How ever in the bottom of the fourth is when the Wanderers bats really came alive.

Five safe hits and some errant fielding saw Wanderers post eight in the bottom of the fourth extending their lead out to 16-1 and finishing Bandits season with a loss.

Redman pitched admirably all day with some great plays of her own especially with Wanderers putting her under plenty of pressure, but for the home team Smith’s efforts were right off the top shelf, backing up her own pitching efforts with some outstanding fielding and batting.